Did everyone get the Aurelien Lurquin email from Lopa yesterday, good lord.
I could barely believe my eyes 
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1998 was released at 173USD stateside apparently, according to the 2008 review by AG on the Wine Advocate site.
Ok so it’s been expensive on that side of the pond for a while already. I recall getting a bottle of the same vintage in Cave des Sacres for 75€ in 2012 but I realize that shop’s pricing was surely as low as it gets.
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Interesting in the context of this discussion, plucking another example at random, Rovani lists the SRP of the 1997 Roederer Brut Vintage as 71 USD in 2005; today that cuvée is around 78 USD.
Don’t know if there’s any resource for historical pricing data that could give more teeth to this discussion?
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We sold the 2007 Celebris at 120 €. Gosset have given a recommended sales price of 230 € for the 2008 Celebris.
I have always felt Gosset made nice champagnes but I don’t see this selling. For us an easy pass, even if it is from 2008.
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Probably feeling two effects there - one, the 2008 premium, and secondly, the overall background increase. One of my merchants told me Cristal increased prices 25% a couple of months ago.
Champagne market has just gotten insane, I cant help but feel theres a lot of tone deafness from the wine industry (eg Bordeaux 22 pricing, Champagne increases, etc) against a backdrop of cost of living, etc. Time will tell if there are sustained buyers or not, but there aren’t many industries where you can bump your price (even if entirely justified through cost of production increase) without ramifications to your demand
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The wines we’re talking about here are luxury goods, and the luxury goods industry has a strong history of increasing prices year by year and it has a history of increasing prices by 2x the inflation. It worked in the past, it works now and it will work in the future… as long as global wealth and numbers of millionaires keeps growing… for every one that drops out at price XYZ of wine X, there is a new buyer coming into the market.
Of course, there will always be shifts in the wine market, one region is hotter than the other, one brand is more sought after and less price elastic than the other. It comes and goes. Just like with other luxury goods (the hot and fast growing watch brands change all the time). (And btw, I believe fine, collectable Champagne was quite underpriced in the past, but that’s another discussion).
While I get the argument, I dont think the recent data entirely holds up to that - there are price drops in secondary market champagne at the moment, dont get me wrong its nowhere near to undoing the increases we’ve seen in the last couple of years, but I dont think it will sustain in the short/medium term
I havent checked everything extensively but 08 Cristal has come down a bit since its recent peak, for example. 12 Taitt has dropped maybe 10-15% since its release, and about that as well since the second tranche pricing…
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I agree with what you write. At the same time, Gosset for instance had loyal customers accustomed to the old prices. I don’t see them paying almost double for the next release.
From my experience from selling wine and champagnes in restaurants and then online, customers tend to buy in the same price brackets. If a wine or champagne goes up, in price, then they usually do not continue to buy but move on to something in the price bracket they are comfortable with.
I am never really sure if producers do the market research concerning prices and if there is an actual market out there willing to pay such prices. I mean we are at 250 € with Krug, Cristal and Dom Perignon, they fit into the luxury goods genre and to paraphrase an italian saying, the prices spices the taste…
Gosset’s Celebris is not at that level and I think those with the means want the best, not second or third best.
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Prices will always fluctuate short-term (you can see the same moves in the stock market, cryptos, high-end Burgundy, Rolex, Patek or AP). But we shouldn’t let the cyclical volatility cloud the view on structural, decades long trend which is unchanged.
Yes, sure, I agree with that. But my money would be against any sustained rally in champagne over the next few years after that recent increase. I think quite a bit of the stock that is being released atm will be sold discounted over the next few years, tbh. May well be wrong, just a gut feeling right now
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I was able to get this around $205-210 or something like that, which was brutally painful, because I think the 2002 is still available for less. But as much as I hated the cost, the BS quality for 2008 has been really excellent. The 2008 Elizabeth Salmon Rose is extraordinary, and the 2008 Louis Salmon BdB is extraordinary (in a very big yeasty rich style). So I went in for a sixer and have no regrets.
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Ill probably end up picking up some more 2002 and seeing if the 2008s eventually settle in price a little - a bit out of my range sadly
Less than one year ago, 2007 Nicolas Francois (with WK rating of 97 points) was $112. Why did I buy only one bottle???
Meanwhile, the 2006 was very good, but not great. But at <$100, I was a quite satisfied buyer. Is most of the 2008 price increase driven by retailers or producer? Maybe the new price can be sustained by 2008 reputation, but how will they sell future less-hyped vintages?
Not just are the prices producer driven, there is direct oversight and more control over where the wines go. The world has been convinced that Dom is allocated. I don’t know for sure how, but from what I understand, the big houses are really monitoring market arbitrage and doing their best to kill it, so never again with the 2006 Taittinger Comtes that was grey market retail at significantly less than my wholesale cost.
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Just had the 02 last week and didn’t think much of it. Maybe it’s just not my style, but I’ve never been very impressed. It’s not bad, just not very exciting. That was my last bottle and I will not be reloading.
Not that this is a Champagne that I or any of you care about, but on the subject of Champagne price increases, I was at Costco today and Veuve Cliquot yellow label is $60 a bottle.
I just looked on K&L and it’s $65.
Is that price level something recent? I had thought of that as maybe a $45-50 wine if you got it somewhere with good pricing.
Ive always seen it in the 40-60 range, though id probably not pay more than 25 for it personally. Costco has never had the best pricing on it either.
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I was at a Sam’s Club the other day and it was $47
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