Bordeaux prices spiking (again?)

WINE TALK
1

I was out of the wine market for a number of years (unfortunately missed the downturn during the recession, when I could have cleaned up), and then got in again a few months ago to reload my cellar. That task is pretty much done. But I’ve noticed something – Bordeaux prices seem to have gone up significantly just over the past four months or so, since I started investigating the market again.

I know there are price indices that track this, but I’m too lazy to look them up, so I’ll just give my impressions and ask for those of others. What I really notice is the jump in prices for super seconds – Pichon, Ducru, Leovilles, Lynch, etc. Maybe that’s just where I do my shopping, but prices for those wines in good years seem to have shot up an extra 20-30 percent recently. E.g. used to be able to find 00 PB, Lynch Bages, for under $150 and they are now clearly above that price. I got 03 Leoville Barton for $90 just a few months ago and now it’s $130. And so on. Prices in off-years for a lot of those chateau seem to be exceeding $100 as well, which is something you never used to see. This makes me sad because these are more or less unaffordable prices for me. Although I guess I’m glad I have the couple of cases of great left bankers that I have.

Have other people noticed this? Do you think it’s sustainable? I just can’t believe we’ll be looking at a world where all the great chateau that I got into wine thinking about as high-quality QPRs (Leovilles, Pichons, etc.) are going to be consistently over $100 every year…sigh…that’ll mean goodbye for me as a buyer.

2

I think you’ll see more of that from good vintages as demand goes up to backfill versus purchasing overpriced 2009 wines. If I was a wine shop I’d take the prices back up as most have been losing money on BDX for a couple years now.

3

I know you referenced that you have been out of the wine buying game, but the price of Bordeaux has steadily been on the rise for the last 10 years (with some peaks and plateaus of course, but overall, has been up, up, up).

Classifieds in general are amongst the strongest b/c of global markets (and a lot more than just China too). Classifieds make up less than 3% of the total production of Bordeaux, and I would say only about 40% of that is wines that people really want, so effectively there just isn’t enough well known classifieds to go around at “reasonable prices”.

I chatted with a long time customer over the weekend about a blow out sale we had back in 2003 of 1998 Ducru at $29.99 a bottle. That same wine now trades for around $100 retail. Yuck.

4

Take a look at 98 Carruades - to think I bought a case of it for 300 bucks. But yes - all the wines are going up in price - even the 08s are going up now.