It’s wild. That’s what I paid too, and I bought mags for $400/btl.
I used to jealously read posts about old-timers who bought at laughably low prices. Now I feel like one–but I only had to wait a couple years! Same way with a bunch of other stuff.
It’s certainly entertaining, but it’s also really disappointing if you still want to buy and drink these wines. I have just a few bottles of Krug, but I liked picking up one here and there for a nice treat. At these prices that’s no longer possible, and I suspect new vintages will start to approach these too. I guess I should have bought more when I had the chance, but that’s true of a lot of wine now.
Both- in the last few months there has been an extraordinary uptick in high end champagne prices both at release and at auction. Or at least for the primary tete de cuvees. I am not seeing as much movement, on a percentage basis, in the uber-rare specialty bottlings like Krug Ambonnay or Bollinger Vieilles Vignes.
There is also a lot less supply being released for some recent releases. Krug 2008 came here in tiny quantities at an incredibly high price- the small supply guaranteed fast sales to that portion of the market that is not terribly price sensitive.
Contrary to my expectations, late release wines are fetching incredible prices and selling through quite well at retail, and so I am sure far more Krug and Dom 08 than would have otherwise been the case is sitting in the cellars waiting for a Collection and P2 release, respectively, at double or more the going rate for both wines at release. Krug and Dom have done these secondary releases for a very long time, but the price differential was much lower and the offerings more modest in size.
And, as can be observed with the narrowing auction spread on top versus so-so vintage DRC Asortiments, the concept of brand is overtaking vintage as well. Around here the 2003 Dom P2 is selling for more than the 2002 P2 did, and magnums of 2010 Dom just came out about 40% higher than where 2008 mags were priced. A real bummer because I had very much hoped to lay down some 2010 mags as that would be a very useful vintage to have in that format- but at $720 each it was an easy pass for me.
I was lucky enough to have bought a lot of krug over the last ten years or so but I’m done with it now. Will enjoy drinking what I have but stick to vilmart, deutz etc for as long as they maintain vaguely sensible prices.
Zachys of all places still has the recent release of Krug xxxe for ~90 in half bottles. So when somebody has a sale I’m thinking (hoping) if you buy early the prices will be about the same as before. 164 is long gone from the regular market and the places listing it on prearrival for 500 on WS aren’t your typical retailers. No idea what they are doing but 3-6 month pre-arrival sounds fishy to me.
Yes, but entire categories are getting challenging, particularly Champagne and Burgundy. I’m not saying there aren’t nice, relatively affordable wines to be had in either, but a lot of the really good wines are getting either very expensive (so many Champagnes) or very difficult to find. Look at what’s happened in just a few years to Egly-Ouriet, Cedric Bouchard, Selosse, Taittinger Comtes, now Krug, and others. There are a couple more that I think will be following close behind. And there are no real substitutes for Champagne or Burgundy, IMO.
Some of us WBer’s a doing a dinner tonight and starting with '08 vs 164. I would not be surprised if my takeaway is that my remaining bottles should be put in the “sell during retirement” section of the cellar. I will continue to drink my 168’s and 169’s unless they spike above $300.