2009 Ch. Latour voted wine of the vintage

WINE TALK
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This just in from Decantor Magazine
There doesn’t seem to be any surprises… Cos d’ is getting a lot of press good or bad.
I bought heavily in 2008 but will stand by and watch this year.

Latour is top wine of Bordeaux 2009, says survey
May 6, 2010
Bordeaux 2009 By Richard Woodard

Chateau Latour has beaten Margaux and Lafite to be the wine of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, according to a survey of the international wine trade.

Meanwhile, Calon-Ségur was the winner in value for money terms, and Cos d’Estournel was the most disappointing wine of the harvest, according to the poll conducted by fine wine exchange Liv-ex.

Tasters gave the vintage as a whole an average points score of 96 out of 100, narrowly ahead of 2005 (ranked 95+).

They expect release prices to be up 120% on 2008 and up 6% on 2005 in euro terms.

The top ten wines of the 2009 vintage, regardless of price, were named as: Latour, Margaux, Lafite, Mouton, Ausone, Pétrus, Haut-Brion, Lafleur, Palmer and Le Pin.

Top ten in value terms were: Calon-Ségur, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Léoville Barton, Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Gruaud-Larose, Pontet-Canet, Léoville Poyferré, Haut-Batailley, Armailhac and Langoa Barton.

And the most disappointing were: Cos d’Estournel, Pavie, Troplong Mondot, Léoville Barton, Pichon Lalande, Talbot, Lascombes, Clos Fourtet, Figeac and Léoville Las Cases.

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in for 3 cases. [snort.gif]

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how exactly do you fall off bile?

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Serge,

You are right, no one is immune to bubble bursting, as we all saw with the US housing market, as we are now seeing with the Greek and Spanish economies, etc.

But we are not about to see it with great Bordeaux…

I just had the owner of a large négociant firm on the phone. He told me that I would not believe the interest he’s getting from Asia as well as other more traditional markets.

Furthermore, whereas the few wines that have come out so far have done so at the 2005 price level, the person I’m referring too said there is no way the name wines will stick to that.

In other words, it’s not with this 2009 vintage that the Bordelais will have to backtrack!

As for this “wine of the vintage” stuff, that seems like total B.S.
Also, I had 3 of the first growths, and Latour was the one that showed least well…

Best regards,
Alex R.

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And anyone can own it for just a low low price of $1,000 USD. Awesome. [rofl.gif]

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Of course he is telling you thatm, he wants to make it look like there is alot of chatter and hype to make you purchase, it is amazing what a little marketing 101 will do.

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Two words:

Um…WHAT?


They have named a ‘wine of the vintage’ based on barrel samples? These aren’t bottled yet, are they?

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Yup…amazing is it not [rofl.gif]

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Are you freakin’ kidding me???

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Not only are these wines not bottled, I don’t think they are even blended yet. That said, based on what I tasted, I can see how that would get the vote. It had to be Latour or Margaux based on the raw material and balance the two exhibited. Ultimately that’s all you can do with the EP tastings anyway, measure raw materials and look for obvious flaws.

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But how can you call it the WINE of the vintage when it’s not even a WINE yet??

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My cousin ‘Sal’ is in Bordeaux right now. He tweeted the 2010s are ‘off the hook’. On the vine, but off the hook.

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Is/was there really any doubt that Latour would make a great wine in '09? Barrel samples or not.

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That seems to be the default position for not just Latour, but all First Growths. What is really interesting are the many blind tastings performed where the price differential between the Firsts and the rest does not appear justified (See the GJE tastings), yet we continue to bow before the 1855 classification with wallets wide open. Almost like we are victims of operant conditioning. [stirthepothal.gif]

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And this is how bubbles work. The people who sell the good, then the middlemen, keep making profits while the troubled good is moved down the line and packed together with other stuff. Eventually someone gets stuck with the bill, however.

For example, take overpriced cheaply made homes. A mortgage brokers writes a risky mortgage, then sells that debt to a bank who packages it into a nebulous security package which hedge funds and investment banks bet will not implode. The builders and brokers do well for a while, but eventually the buyers can’t pay and the people insuring the securities can’t pay.

So the Bdx bubble is fine for producers and negociants as they get fat and wealthy now. I hope they don’t spend it all now because the consumers will not be able to pay eventually, and the retailers will not be interested, either. Meanwhile, the Asian economy needs established economies to buy cheap goods. It’s all connected, and if the European and US economies continue to falter, then Asian demand will dry up as well. The dominoes are lined up, but of course it takes time for one to topple the next.

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leoville barton was both a top value and a biggest disappointment?

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Here’s another thing… how can you rate best or worst values when the prices haven’t been set yet???

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Greg,

The wonderful thing about the Bordeaux bubble (by the way, this is only hypothetical, because there isn’t one by any means for the 2009s!) is that if it were to burst everyone except the Bordelais would get burnt.

It would be out of their hands by then!

Best regards,
Alex R.

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Here’s what’s different about a “Bordeaux bubble” than other bubbles…

I can’t eat my house or chew on my stock, but I can sure enjoy some mighty fine wines if they become worthless.

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I thought LLC was considered stellar?