dan, the wasserman portfolio has been steadily adding these new names who are primarily working with purchased fruit. all lean to more natural styled vinifications, make small quantities of wines, and frankly are quite poor qpr. most would agree wasserman was pivotal in exposing some of the greats of burgundy to the american market so i do find it odd this is a segment they have decided to stack their chips on.
seems like retail for that bottle is around $80 but clearly with a bidder someone thinks it is worth more.
Yes, but a Coteaux Bourguignons that runs over $400 AUD per is ridiculous no matter where it comes from imho. For $34 more you could even land the Leroy Coteaux Bourguignon!
The value play is that they were better than their cost. I bought a bunch of them from 14-18 for that reason. Doubling the prices have brought them up to their value or often beyond. “Excellent” wines is subjective and while the recent examples aren’t bad and like I said I bought a bunch, I have never found them to have the highest highs and definitely not that excitement and depth found in the best producers. They do fine in the best vintages where everyone does well, but still are missing something from the top examples. And in lesser or poor vintages they are well behind the curve.
I don’t think purchasing power has much to do with it; the price for the grapes is what it is. I don’t think the micro negoce pay any more for the fruit than Bouchard does - since the grapes in Burgundy are expensive, there’s no reason for landowners to provide discounts.
As far as sustainability of $75/$90 Bourgogne rouge, there’s not much of this stuff made.
Yes, as you’ve repeatedly posted, you’re a lable drinker, so until the Bouchard label is perceived as one of the “best producers” you won’t find it to have the “highest highs” or the “excitement or depth”. And that change won’t happen until the prices become higher, which is why this is all tautological.
That’s the point of this move by Bouchard, to change that perception. It’s effectively how luxury brands try to position certain products - increases in price indicate a level of increased quality (or exclusivity). DRC is, of course, the best example in Burgundy - an inconsistent product made in huge volume but positioned at a huge premium due in no small part to the starting price.
Andrew, I’d hate for you to think I was being disingenuous - my comment was entirely genuine and not at all obtuse. When you write that you’re a label whore and that labels correspond to quality, I take you at your word and your statements at face value. There’s no judgment - everyone should drink however they want (I used to have a neighbor who only drank 100 point wines after a health scare). You love labels, that’s cool. I’m more interested in what’s inside the bottle - we just have different perspectives on the hobby.
These wines have been around for forever. They were really popular in the 90s, then faded away for a bit. Not sure why the surge was so late, everyone knew Henry’s ties to DRC for a long time.
