Bordeaux EP 2024

Lafleur seemed to move quickly in France today at a 3% discount to last year.

Thank you Jeff- this is very helpful and I am thinking I will move forward provided I can get an overall allocation that is appealing. It is a funny thing- I think our palates are quite opposite in terms of preference, but I find your notes increasingly helpful over time. Appreciate your generosity in sharing your knowledge freely.

That does not surprise me too much. I am not sure what the situation in Europe is, but here in the US if you want to get either Le Pin or Lafleur, futures is going to be the best price- period. That was true even with 2021. And in many local markets, it is the only way to get them at all.

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With the secondary market fall much le pin is below release price. A lot of good Lafleur is still well above release price but vintages such as 20, 21 are at or below. I suspect 23 and 24 will be below too.

What is the price for 20 Lafleur? I’d be surprised if it was under release .

Same for Le Pin, though I don’t know the release price for them. However. They make so little wine, and it’s widely distributed, the quantity floating around would not be relevant.

Today you can buy 2020 Lafleur about 600/btl. It would have released at maybe 525/bottle? I bought some so I can look it up if we want the exact number

2020 le pin is available at a price below what I paid atm

I am wondering if producers are forcing negociants to take their allocations of 2024s, knowing that there is little chance of selling them for two years, and interest rates to carry the wines have shot up.

From what I hear on discord (which now includes some negociants) many wines are being ordered to demand only, and many merchants are not taking anything they don’t have guaranteed demand for. If that is true, I’m going to call this the single worst en primeur in more than a decade (from the chateau perspective)

I think wines like Montrose and Lafite will move something like 30% of their typical volume…someone said that a negociant said Pontet canet sold 0.3% of their typical en primeur volume.

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Imagine this depends how your retailer treats Le Pin. If it’s a thank you for supporting the campaign as a whole or whether they’re trying to squeeze every penny out of that specific bottle.

Sure. Just relating to my own personal experiences because I have that for hard data. Both of my cases were on annual allocation, without the need to buy broadly, but I passed one up in 2020 and the other in 2021

I think the Lafleur is over what I paid. I have no access to, and don’t spend the money to buy Le Pin.

How many bottles are available ? That is also important as a few cases do not set the market.

Between Farr and IG you have 21 bottles available at that price
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/lafleur+pomerol+bordeaux+france/2020?srsltid=AfmBOoo8Atpr_7k37NUe8TLQdS-WnbcXhESOaw7LaJb2vGdgNOmYiON2

I haven’t checked any further on WS because 21 bottles of Lafleur is a lot of stock cover imho

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With few exceptions that is true.

I paid 1588 pretax for a bottle and magnum of 2020 Lafleur. That was with Armit who are a primary importer

I think those prices are more than fair. I paid less as a future, but today’s price is today’s price. That being said, 21 bottles out of 12,000 bottles is not a large supply.

Can I get the dets on where I can buy Lafleur 2020 at that price?

Of course mate:

https://www.farrvintners.com/wine.php?wine=69421

Only available in cases of 6.

About $10/bottle more expensive, you can buy it in cases of 3 here:

Note this is all UK in bond stock, so depending on where you live in the world you’ll need to look at the logistics of moving it

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Yeah, looks like after exchange rate to USD, we’re up about $900/btl pre tax, tariff and shipping. Bummer.

It’s a lot of money, but if you have it, and if you are a fan of Lafleur, which is always quite pricey, it’s never going to be less. And in the USA, it’s still below market FWIW. IMO, Lafleur competes with Le Pin and Lafleur. It’s as good or better as well !

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