Out-priced in a heated Burgundy market. What do you do?

With stratospheric pricing of top Burgundy Producers. Have you changed your buying strategies?

1. Do you still continue to buy the top favourite producers but accept the prices and shrug your shoulders?

2. Do you still continue to buy the top favourite producers but buy less quantities of each wine?

3. Do you stop buying Top producers and buy wines from lower tier producers.

4. Stop buying Burgundy and move on to other regions (e.g. Nebbiolo)

backfill

Piedmont

5. Drink hand sanitizer

This one…you still continue to buy the top favourite producers but accept the prices and shrug your shoulders?

It’s really hard to drink down…

This.

1. Backfill when the opportunity comes along. Mostly '09s and '10s as rarely do I see '99s, '02s, '05s on ‘sale’. Though I did buy some '99 Damoy ‘Beze’ recently!

2. Yes, stop buying the trophy stuff. No more DRC, Rousseau, Roumier, Rouget (Parantoux) n particular), etc for me at current market prices (some still at ‘new issue’ price where I’m still in that game). '99 Cathiard ‘Malconsorts’ at $80 is a good bottle with dinner. At $500 is a car payment.

3. Look for interesting new producers, or old underperforming producers with land ownership where the sons/daughters now make the wine (Drouin-Laroze the poster child for this, here, one of the last $125-$150 Chambertin ‘Beze’ guys, now just need one of these in Musigny!)

4. Buy more from 1er vineyards that abut the great vineyards. So Petits Monts and Reignots are the winners here.

5. Drink down the existing cellar and be happy that I loaded the boat when I did

Sell all my older wines to folks looking to backfill…the prices have made these wines undrinkable even if I already own them when I think in the context of a car payment or even a mortgage payment!

I love both good burgs and barolo. But I don’t feel they are interchangeable. Barolo is more structured with robust tannin and higher acidity.I love Barolo with hearty/fatty foods. While burgs are more feminine. It is soft with subtle nuances and more perfumed. Works well with simpler food.

This is exactly why raising prices year over year works so well.

I have limited funds and love Burgundy so my strategy, by necessity, is:

(1) Don’t buy trophy wines unless the deal is too good to pass up (i.e., unless you are paying far enough under market where you can justify the purchase for investment reasons alone).

(2) Be nimble. Always be on the lookout for undervalued producers that the market hasn’t caught on to. Open bottles young to find these producers and then buy before others catch on.

(3) No sacred cows. When a producer becomes too expensive, move on. I’ve had to jettison Mugneret-Gibourg, Ponsot, and Dujac. Hudelot-Noellat is going that direction. Can’t get too hung up about it. There are oceans of good Burgundy out there; for me I don’t get a good enough ROI from the premium paid on the trendy producers. I don’t have verticals, and I don’t really care.

(4) Aggressively scour deals. I buy most of my Burgundy when it is significantly discounted. This means you miss out on trophy bottles, and makes for a pretty eclectic group of producers, but it also leads to a lot of tasty wine at reasonable prices. For all the crap PC takes, I’ve bought a lot of Burgundy from PC that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to cellar.

(5) Focus on the Cote de Beaune. The market has caught up to this one, but not fully. I buy a disproportionate amount of Burgundy from Volnay, Pommard, and Beaune, which all abound with excellent wines without the premium you pay for Chambolle or Vosne.

(6) Buy from big negociants. Faiveley and Jadot among others are putting out great wines at reasonable prices. I also find it easier to backfill from the bigger negociants and in the past few years have found killer deals on Faiveley and Jadot from 91, 93, 98, 01, 02 etc.

(7) Focus on 1ers. GC’s usually come at a significant premium, while I rarely see the value in the top-flight village wines (eg Mugneret Vosne, Mugnier Chambolle, etc.). Lots of good 1ers can be found in the $50-115 range.

I came late to Burgundy, but my strategy is:

• Buy wines I can afford, let the rest go.
• Buy more from Oregon.

Michael

Yeah, it’s funny how as Bordeaux and Burgundy ramp up the prices of new vintages, suddenly you feel as though those bottles from back vintages are such a bargain.

And they are, relative to the new releases from top vintages, but still, you know on some level you’re getting manipulated.

Ryan, these last two struck me as good advice. I happened to open a 1999 Jadot Pommard 1er (Charmots or something) this weekend. I got it from Envoyer this year, ex-domaine, for 49.99 (I think). A very, very good wine. Thanks for the excellent storage Jadot!

I guess it depends how you define top producers. Most of my favorites that I buy year in and year out have not moved up much in price. There are always going to be a small number of producers that are too expensive either from getting culty with fans or getting anointed by a critic, and those are best ignored. This has happened to a few wines I wish I could still buy, but there is so much else to choose from it’s no big deal. The idea that those producers are the “top” producers and anything else is second-best is very wrong–that kind of pricing is about fashion, not quality, and fashion is a pretty arbitrary thing.

Backfilling is good advice regardless. Almost all my greatest Burgundy experiences have one thing in common–they got decades of age, under manifestly good conditions. Those include some producers and vineyards that would excite almost nobody. Better to get some bottles with a head start in the cellar on someone else’s dime than overpay for the latest flavor of the month, lose patience with it, and have a suboptimal experience from drinking it 20 years too soon.

This.
Ryan has articulated my strategy perfectly.
Well said, Ryan!

Excellent summary:

1. I buy occasional trophy wine now for special dinner functions. But significantly less.

2. I am ont he lookout for undervalued - under the radar producers. Caught up with a few direct importers.

3. I had to give up on Rousseau beginning of 2011. Getting too expensive for me. Shame because its my favourite producer. But life goes on.

4. Aggressive deals. Haven’t seen any in my neck of the woods.

5. Volnay and Pommard are getting more attention compared with northern regions. Or a good Corton.

6. I have purchased from Faiveley. Better prices. Not so much enamoured by Jadot.

7. Yes. For top producers the 1er crus are substantially less expensive for Grand crus. Works some times.
   
   
   Backfilling is is good if you get it right. Yes, as others have alluded to earlier, its conning your brain into thinking what was exorbitant before is a bargain now.

I’ve been waiting for close-outs & after-vintage dumping. I’ve picked up some really nice bottles, but usually only available in quantities of 3 to 6. Mostly 1er cru & GC chablis. I also look for GC rouges that are out of the top-10. Works better for my pocketbook, and I like the hunt =D.

If I were a committed Burgundy enthusiast, I think I’d re-align to other producers/wines/appellations within Burgundy. Maybe taste across other regions as well, but many Burgheads see Burgundy and Pinot Noir elsewhere as simple different wines.

For me, I’d only dabbled in Burgundy when the prices started escalating. With a lower success rate than other regions, what I have is enough for me and I won’t rush to replenish.

I see the comparison between pinot noir and nebbiolo, but one shouldn’t underestimate the differences. In my case I find Burgundy much harder to enjoy than Piemontese nebbiolo.

regards
Ian

other than the aforementioned advice, find old friends into Burgundy.