"Sanity Returns to Bordeaux Pricing"

This was the subject line of a recent merchant offering for 2011 Bordeaux futures. One of the offerings was 2011 Mouton Rothschild for $530, with a listed WA barrel score range of 93-96. Thank goodness for sanity!

Bruce

I’m not sure “sanity” will ever return to Bdx. pricing.

Brings back fond memories of First Growth pricing pre 2005…

2000 FG $200
2001 FG $110
2002 FG $99
2003 FG $200
2004 FG $180

My fond memories…
1989 Haut Brion $860
1989 Other 1st Growths $900
1990 Haut Brion $720
1990 Other 1st growths $750
1990 Super 2nds $250-350
All these prices are Per Case.

It appears the Asian wine mania has moved over to Burgundy. Not sure I’d describe the current Bordeaux market as “sane”, however. I don’t expect to see sanity (or at least what appears to me to be sanity) again in either wine region. Fun while it lasted!

The declining euro should help as well.

Even if I had an interest in the wines (no longer, and particularly not in a weak year like 2011), I would consider the wines overpriced by AT LEAST a factor of 2, maybe more. I don’t know if anyone is paying attention to Bordeaux, I certainly am not. I wonder if they have finally killed the goose that laid their golden eggs for all these years…

I still want to drink Bordeaux, but not at those prices. I’ll drink down my cellar, and look for gems like Ch Peybonhomme Le Tours.

While it’s true that most of the classified growth pricing is out of control, there are still plenty of good Bdx wines to drink for reasonable prices, sometimes even exceptional quality for the price. Look at some of the 2009 wines from Fronsac, cru bourgeois from the Medoc and Pessac, Lalande de Pomerol, even St. Emillion. Here is a link to a local wine shop where I’ve been buying & trying some of these, just for example:

I don’t pay too much attention to critic’s scores, but for those that do, here are plenty of wines scored in the low 90’s for under $40. If these wines start disappearing off retailers shelves while the expensive growths just sit there, hopefully that will send a message.

Sanity will never return to the 1sts. They (and a handful of other wines, from bordeaux and elsewhere) have moved into a special zone along with other badges of affluence like Patek watches. The sale price has become entirely divorced from any sort of relationship to the product’s quality (unless the quality that matters to you is the statement that the wines deliver).

Whether sanity has returned or ever returns to the rest of bordeaux’s wines is of course largely a matter of perspective and seems to me far more debatable especially when compared to equally lofty prices obtained (or at least sought) by supposedly top shelf wines from other regions.

Yep…sanity.

https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/ahhhh-value/57220/1

Bordeaux has been the “insane price whipping boy”, but those of us who still purchase from Napa and Burgundy (the most egregious offender of all), shouldn’t point fingers.

Ive been watching prices at total wine fall by 5-10 % on the classified stuff.

Insane X [.9] = Insane

I can see paying more coin for a fantastic bottle of Bordeaux that’s been properly cellared and mature. But when First Growths go for $500-$1000 per bottle for a wine that won’t even arrive for 1-2 years, and may be very good but not fantastic, then it seems very out of whack to me.

As Dave G. points out above, there are various wines from Bordeaux and adjacent areas that deliver good value.

Bruce

And second labels going for $300-600/bottle…

Not to mention that the wines need to be kept (cellared) for at least 20 years or more to be ready for drinking. At today’s prices, that’s a pretty poor investment.
For those people who bought 1st growths & the like in the 70’s & 80’s, Well Done!

Is Leve writing their material?

I certainly do not see the value proposition in futures these days. Hmmm…do I buy the 2010 Haut-Brion and 2010 La Mission Haut-Brion that are still in barrel, not to be delivered for another year or two, that I also have to hold for 20+ years to maturity, or do I buy the same two iconic wines for the same price from the 1989 vintage, that I can drink today? Even for ready to drink wine, the prices are pretty out there…

In Burgundy at least most of the price gauging is not being done by the domaines.