Presented to the trade yesterday in the UK and received rated 98 by Galloni.
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“The Only US Bottles”
But he doesn’t have them yet!
I saw that a couple of gray marketers were offering it already, but I consider that throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks until the official UK price is set. There are a couple of merchants in the UK showing pricing already in bond and in quantity around the $150 - $160 mark. I was told there will be sizable allocations on release. Hopefully we don’t a repeat of '12 with limited supply on release, followed by huge markups in the secondary market and then a serious drop in pricing 6 months later.
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official UK price is £715/6, its already set. (IB).
I dont think there will be too much challenge finding this, to be honest. It’s priced above 12, which is dropping rapidly, and with the current market I suspect it wont sell out. I may be wrong though.
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That’s $144/btl given current exchange rate. I believe '12 was £675/6, which was $127 at the then prevailing exchange rate. Let’s see how much they actually release.
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I’ve been very clear with the merchants I deal with that Taittinger have only got themselves to blame for the monumental f**k up they made with the 12 release strategy. If they think they’ll be able to shift significant volumes of the 13 at a price anywhere above where the same volumes of the 12 are available today, let alone 15-20% higher, then they’re insane.
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Just one thing to point out - on discussion with Tom Mann, there was no formal second release of the Taittinger Comtes 12. There was merchants buying secondary stock from other merchants and releasing it at the higher price, but there was only one formal release cycle of Taitt 12. There was also a third wave where UK agents released stock reserved for restaurants
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Officially released at 715/6 this morning in the UK. Immediately offered at 675, then at 650 for 5+ cases and then at 650 for as little or as much as I wanted. Absolute clown show.
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I got offers from everybody this morning. For '12 it was crickets. Also got an offer at £685. It seems like they have a lot of product to move and demand is low. Will be interesting to see where it settles.
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Same as Andrew. Woke up to see 5-6 different offers for 2013.
2012 is available at £625. 2013 would make sense only if it was a significantly better vintage, which it isn’t.
At £880/6 backfilling 2008 seems tempting.
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Exactly my position but of course I haven’t been able to taste it myself to do the comparison. However, a merchant who I trust said he has been able to do the side by side and he thinks it smokes the 12.
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They are not right. Allocations are coming out small. I didn’t even get half of what I bought in 2012.
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Plenty of stock and deals in the UK so far. None of the offers I saw were on allocation and one was even below the release price for just a 6-pack. Not sure what will happen when released in the US, but I have to imagine if quantity is available in the UK, then Kobrand will have plenty of stock too.
Only got 1 offer at 195.5 euros (TTC) in France. But that was email. Waiting for known retailers to contact me.
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Wasn’t the problem with 2012 that the market turned right as it came out? Kind of like how luxury condos with very aggressive pricing went up near me and the bottom fell out of the market right as they were finishing them…
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I think it was really hyped up, and the ratings were a little light for the hype.
Though I’ve had the wine several times now, and think it’s a great Comtes that needs time.
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OK, just got a second chunk.
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Maybe Suckling is driving the Champagne market now? That could explain the tepid market response to the 2013 which he only gave 98 points, the lowest on his 3 point rating scale. 
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I agree with this, the ratings were low relatively speaking and the Champagne showed brilliance a couple of times I had it, but now needs to sleep for a while.
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