Burgundy Pricing Variance By Vintage

WINE TALK
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Hi Mr./Mrs. Wine Experts,

I’ve re-caught the burg bug recently (probably a decade too late) and have been stocking up some recent vintage burgs from all over the map (e.g., duajc msd blanc 23; bernard-bonin meursault la rencontre 21; PYCM corton charlegmagne 22; de vogue BM 21; jadot montrachet 22). So, basically just “blue-chip” safe-bets and/or “hot” wines/producers, since I am not much of an expert.

Anyway, I’ve been looking to get my hands on a wine from les amoureuses, and one of the wine shops I work with just sent over some offers, including the drouhin les amoureuses 2023. A grand? Fine. I get it. Burgundy market has lost its damn mind and me along with it. I’ll still grovel for some. C’est la vie.

But then, it got me looking at the older vintages and it seems like the older vintages of (let’s just say drouhin les amoureuses 2011 – but noticed for many other domaines/gc and 1er vineyard wines) the same wines are like half the price? For example, I got an offer for the Drouhin Les Amoureuses 2014 at $500, which is half of the 2023.

Is that common? I’ve always thought that, at least with respect to the Bordeaux wines (at least 1st growths / classes a folks anyway), the older vintages will be more expensive than the new. So if I wanted to get my hands on a Ch. Margaux 2010 now (LITTY vintage for me personally), it would be significantly more expensive than the bottle that was just recently released.

But that does not seem to apply with Burgundy. is there a reason for it? Is is that the “older” burgundy wine market just hadn’t caught up to the new because of the insane increase in the Burg prices at release these days? And the wine shops and importers got some of these burgs at “cheap” prices 10-15 years ago compared to what they are being released at now? Or maybe I am just looking at the wrong websites / wine-shops and/or making wrong conclusions?

Very curious to hear your thoughts/answers. Part of the reason I ask is that, if my above observation is in fact generally correct, than I am a happy man and I got old burgs at a metaphorical discount. If that’s NOT the case, than I worry that the “cheaply marked” bottle had questionable provenance or otherwise. Maybe it’s the whole premox business?

Thanks for bearing with me while I ramble and happy almost weekend

xx

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23 is a very good to excellent vintage, where as 2011 is considered a bad vintage and 14 is ok. There are sometimes some discounts in back vintage burgundy, but provenance can be an issue, as well as vintage quality.

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Yes… And it’s totally true that Domaines have raised prices in the past few vintages to the point that you can often buy older vintages for less money. But you also have to be careful with winemaking and/or farming changes because sometimes those older vintages just aren’t as good wine even in a theoretically “good” vintage.

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I understand from a couple of trusted sources that given the variability of the vintage, there are plenty of indifferent wines, but the best are extraordinary. I ended up buying my usual Jouan, who apparently did very well, and splurging on some Hudelot Noellat’s Richebourg.

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Mark! I got the bonin merusault thanks to you referring me to Ken. Thanks again.

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For many years (going back at least 20), I marveled at the fact that older vintages of certain wines (including Bordeaux) were cheaper than newer vintages and yet had the advantage of bottle age. I think many retailers price according to what they paid, not by reference to what current releases are selling for. Unless you suspect the 2014 has been badly stored, I’d spring for two of these first. But that’s just me. And frankly, I’d be looking for Drouhin’s CM 1er cru or CM Baudes before springing for the Amoureuses. Or even the Petit Monts.

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So if going “older”, stick to the big dogs? did winemaking in general change significantly over the last 15 years? I know voguet for a while wasn’t doing too hot but know nothing about most vignerons. Probably too complex of a question with a lot of nuances but curious what the 3-sentence summary would be.

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I would recommend the 2016 Drouhin Amoureuses or 2017 Bertheau Amoureuses at 400-650 rather than the 23 at 1000.

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Winemaking has changed at some places but not others. The wines can be better at some places but not others, there’s not one answer for this.

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Thank you <3

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The Burgundy market was running hot especially from 2019-2023, so prices went up at auction as well as were raised and raised every vintage (from some combination of the domains, importers, grey market and auction) . Then in 23/24 the market demand softened and back vintage wines prices dropped especially at auction. New release prices continued to go up as back vintage prices fell. So there is a weird variance in the market where you can buy back vintage w age on it for same or often less than new release price.
This somewhat depends on strength of vintage but generally holds true. Not sure how long it lasts but its an interesting time IMO.

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