I can’t figure out which is stranger…Suckling’s 95-96 point score or the $400 price tag. So I haven’t tried it but a 95-96 point Carruades? I guess that should put the Lafite in the 100-105 point category.
This looks to me like proof positive of the phenomenon where critics are used to validate judgments people have already made, rather than actually to provide independent advice. There’s a population of folks who have decided that Carruades is a super-luxury wine - so the critic who wants to become influential with those folks has to reassure them that the wine really does merit their esteem.
Bingo Keith.
Many wine critics have seemed to be caught up in wine “score inflation” where the 100 pt scale has been reduced to 10 pts (from 20 a bit ago).
People are willing to pay thru the nose for points and critics seem to have responded to this demand - which seems perfectly fit for our price inflation driven economy.
Parker’s 97 pt recent re-review of the 2005 Beringer Private Reserve either makes me think that he has lost his mind or the 100 scale has lost all meaning.
Put it this way, the 2005 Beringer is very nice, but not in the top 3% of the wines I have ever had.
No f’ing way Carruades EVER will be a 95-96 pt wine. Total bullshit. And $400… jeezez what a load of crap! $30.00 I’m in, any more than that and [middle-finger.gif]
I still don’t understand why the Lafite halo spread to Carruades but not Duhart.
If it was Duhart Lafite it would, Duhart Milon, not so much.
![[thumbs-up.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f84c5acc11486ee4baba6dee6cf61dbd133abb18.gif "[thumbs-up.gif]"){kind=small}
Actually I LOVE Duhart!
Well, it says “Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite)” right under the chateau name, or at least it used to.
And Carruades doesn’t even have a boat. Duhart has a boat.
no brainer but to backfill on this one. total wine in richmond, va has the '03 for $799 ![[head-bang.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/b1cd199e4b2b2988b5107c3c9598fd28dc92a776.gif "[head-bang.gif]"){kind=small}
My one bottle of 2000 still has the $40 price tag on it. I should probably scrape that off before sending to auction… 
Sold a 99’ that was given to me by a rep, he said…Don’t sit on this wine too long, bad vintage, well…
A free bottle of wine I sold for $260 a year ago. Nuts. Just because it is Bdx. The other guy must have made double.
Jb
Back in the day, I thought $25 was even too much for the Carruades, especially since the likes of Lynch, GPL, and Pichon Baron were available for only a bit more $. I wish I bought more '96 GPL for $40, '96 Pichon Baron for $50 and '96 Lynch for $60.
Maybe Lafite has amped the quality of Carruades in response to the price increase, it would be silly not to. You can increase selection/concentration a lot for $10-$20 a bottle in costs, which is nothing compared to the increase in the market demand for this stuff. And of course releasing less of it would just sustain the higher prices.
So I imagine it’s a different wine from the second-class stuff I remember it as in the 90s/early 00s.
Considering that the market is at $150/bottle for 2000 DM, I’d say it has definitely spread that far… I just recently sold a few bottles of the 2000 that still had the $20 price tags still on them - score!
I started drinking Carruades de Lafite with the 2000 viintage. Paid $50 a bottle, then something like $26 for the 01-03. I sold off most when the economy first tanked…wish I would have held off! Think I got like $100 a bottle for the 2000.
Had an 1997-2003 verticel of CdL…whats that worth now?
Well stated.
Wine Spectator has reviewed 29 vintages of Carruades from bottle, all or most of those reviews by James Suckling, and only two have ever scored higher than 90 points (the 2000 got 93 points and the 1988 got 91 points). The median score is 87 points.
And sure, 2010 is a highly-rated vintage, but the 2005 got 89 points, the 1982 got 84 points, etc.
I guess it’s also possible that the producer abruptly and successfully jacked the quality of the wine way up in response to the random crowning of Carruades as one of Asia’s two cult wines, or that it’s some combination of the two factors.
Parker gave it 91-94 and James Molesworth of WS gave it 93-96. That still leaves open either of the two possibilities from my prior paragraph, of course.
One of the more unfortunate side-effects of the Asian wine explosion is the elevation of the second wines. There’s no excuse for these second wines to be generating prices similar to true second and third growths. To me it’s just brand over actual knowledge, people who just want something with the Lafite name on it, like it’s a handbag.
If people are willing to pay these prices, let them have all the Carraudes and Forts and Petit Cheval they want, anything to keep the Las Cases and Cos and Palmer a little cheaper for a little longer.