And to begin, it’s Beychevelle retailing at 530 pounds a case about $64 a bottle.
That’s not terrible. I expected higher.
You can get the 14 for between 55 and 60 pretty easily. So it looks as though they are asking for a significsant 15 premium.
The guy I buy most of my futures through has tasted both of the past two vintages en primeur. He said to expect about a 20% increase from 2014. He opined the wines are at least 20% better. Based upon what I’ve read, the latter statement may be too general. I still see some tasters remarking that some estates made better wines in 2014, especially in the northern Medoc. I do believe on the whole it is better vintage. It sounds like the acids are lower, so it will likely be to my liking (and Pomerol did well).
In terms of price positioning of the early releases, Lafleur, Beycheville and Cantemerle all went with the combination of: 1. Higher than 2014, but 2. Lower than the current average available price for 2005, 2009 and 2010. That seems about fair to me. I’ll pick up a couple of mixed cases for sure and if most estates follow this path, then I’ll be picking up some pretty nice wines for reasonable prices. I expect there will be lots of options and if the price is too high on my targets, my bailout strategy is to go back to 2014.
Siduiraut came out high and the advice by LivEx was that it made the most sense to buy any other vintage.
Fortunately, there are price drags on the vintage in regard to the vintage generally being regarded as a notch below 2005, 2009 and 2010 because of the lack of consistency. Also, the leaders of the pack in Paulliac and St. Estephe were hit with the late season rain and were relatively a little down. There are also the “Brexit” worries for their best customers.
Just saw a Pape Clement offer for 632 pounds/case of 12, about $76/btl.
That should put Beycheville around $75ish or so. I want to see what the Pichons do.
Saw a U.S. Beychevelle offer this AM in the mid-60s.
I think they were around $90 in 2014. With the high WA scores for them I’m betting in $110-120 range. I’m probably not a buyer there.
I’m hoping Canon doesn’t go to '09/'10 pricing but with the higher scores they might. And it’ll probably pull up the '14 from ~$55
15 Beychevelle $70 @ K&L compared to $65 seems reasonable but no rush. For the Pichons I agree,
I’m betting in $110-120 range.
I’ll bet Canon will be a big increase over 14, $80-$99ish.
Total Wine just offered Cantermerle for $29. $15 for 375’s. I think I am going deep on 375’s in 2015.
375’s will be one of the reasons I am most likely to do some buying. I’m going to be patient a bit though, and see how things roll out. I also want to pick up a few large formats to put away for my younger daughters wedding.
Didn’t see that on their website. I might be convinced that some 375s are in order
Yea, I’d do that too if my local guys carries them.
Beychevelle at $68
You’re just waiting for the Perse stable to release
That’s weird…a bunch of Total Wine offers for Cantemerle but I never received one…do they stagger their emails?
I almost named my dog Pavie or Rollo, my cutesy name for Rolland, but opted to name it after my truck instead. I shoulda thought further about that, since my POS truck breaks down about every 2 mos. Even Rollo is more reliable, well, at least predictable.
2015 Malescot for under $50 is sorely tempting my pledge never to buy futures again…
+1 Though I’m usually a bigger fan of Brane-Cantenac so will wait and see where they open
The Margaux appellation sounds fantastic in 2015.
It is! I mean, after going through the Margaux at a trade tasting, I went to the northern Medoc and the tannins were not as smooth. The very best Margaux also have more grip and even power (Palmer, Margaux) than most all Pauillacs.