Latour just released and pricing is almost affordable at £2,090 per 6. Comes out to around $480 per bottle.
Any fans of the 2013 vintage around here?
Nope. Nonseller.
One for restaurants and non-knowledgeable drinkers only.
Not tempted in the least. A really mediocre vintage. I have yet to find a 2013 that I liked let alone would buy. Even if Latour made the wine of the vintage, it still would not be a great wine; you can only do so much when the weather is against you.
And frankly $480 is ludicrous, when you think of how many better wines you can buy for the same money.
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Found this as I was looking through my morning e mails
At normal mark ups, a restaurant would be charging $1440.
Maybe appeals to a buyer who can’t afford a good vintage, but wants to proudly point to his bottle of Latour?
The Liv-Ex article pointed to the “paucity” of scores. Three more came out yesterday.
AG: 92
NM: 91
LPB: 93
Based on the curve in the Liv-Ex article, $480 unfortunately seems about correct based on their more recent methodology. If they followed the older methodology (using Neal Martin’s score alone), it would suggest a price nearer $350.
That’s compared to other Latour vintages, yes. But the price is certainly not correct if you compare it to other Bordeaux wines with 91-93 points.
None of the first growths’ prices make sense compared to other Bordeaux of similar scores.
at least one of my merchants are using it to allocate Latour 14/15. I also got this in a note:
However, every merchant is in the same position, in order to protect future allocations (and customers) we have to offer and sell a certain amount of 2013.
Because of the demand in Asia, what we don’t want to see is them buying the majority of the 2013 released and therefore reducing the future European allocations of the wine. This is likely to happen, but we have to try and reduce this.
Unfortunately nothing to be done about it, Latour out of touch with reality.
Too expensive for the quality. I would be surprised if this sells out quickly. Then again, I probably have too little understanding of pricing models. If it does sell out, it will crank up market prices of other vintages, since all is relative.
Wine Cellarage just set an email offer for $515 per.
I concur with one of the posts above, this vintage will likely go to many restaurants, or at best, collectors who want the label more than anything else.
I agree with that for lesser or off vintages. In great vintages it’s a different story and a premium is often justified.
this is where points often fails to really describe wines in an appropriate quality. A 99 point Mouton isnt marginally better tan, say, a 96 point Pontet.
LOL. In what world does left bank Bordeaux need to be allocated?
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True, true. When I got into fine wines I thought that such premiums are purely because of the label and I wouldn’t ever pay them. Then I joined some high profile wine groups and did Bordeaux horizontals for quite a few vintages. These were always blind tastings and we all scored the wines and perhaps not so surprising, the top 10 and top 5 lists in these blind tasting were usually full of First Growth wines (and you can add Cheval, Petrus, Le Pin, Ausone, Lafleur to that list) eventhough nobody saw the labels.
Just passing on the message, but in fairness, I couldnt get a full allotment of Mouton last season despite my best efforts. I dont think 14 Latour (TBH) will be heavily oversubscribed - in the same way that 2012 is still available at its release price. I can see an uptick in demand for 2015.
If I look at my own cellar, I had an 04 Mouton which is 92.7 on Cellartracker at the minute - I know if I compare that to, say, 2018 Domaine Saint-Damien Gigondas La Louisiane (which is 92.8 right now, and I’m a big fan of), I know the Mouton is gonna be streets ahead every time.
If not explicitly, people inherently bias their scores implicitly based on the perceived price/overall expected performance of a chateau
Wine Cellarage also had 2015 Les Forts for $219. Perhaps more in line with the vintage quality, this still seems over-priced to me as a second wine. Is this the Latour for bargain seeking label displayers?
It’s challenging to understand the pricing of a product that commands such market premiums and yet is produced in such large quantity. 18,000 cases of the Grand Vin per year on average. But the brand has earned a premium and will strive to protect it. Ultimately the market will speak but savvy buyers (clearly not the target for this release) will pass. Looking through Wine-Searcher it’s pretty amazing how nearly every vintage back to the 1960s (dumbfounding!) is available, many below this $500 release price. If I had to have good Latour, seems like 2001 is a good sweet spot vintage to buy now, priced about where this 2013 is. Prediction: in 10 years 2013 will be widely available for at least 20% below release price.
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