I got a list today which raised some questions in my mind about the price of a bottle of Musigny. Everything Leroy is crazy, Mugnier has become cultish, but two things stood out. Why do the Vogüé bottlings come in so much cheaper? Is it the perception that the wines have not been living up to the terroir, or is it in fact a disadvantage to own 80% of the vineyard? But perhaps the most puzzling to me was Faiveley 2010 at $6,914 a bottle. There is a radical disconnect in my mind at seeing the Faiveley name and that kind of money being asked. Do people have insights into these pricings?
Scarcity. And yes, from a pricing perspective Vogue has a ‘disadvantage’ through being high production and easy to get. When only 150 bottles a year get made (as was the case with Faiveley) it doesn’t require a lot of rich people to drive the price up over $6000.
Faiveley is on account of scarcity. They have like a barrel and I think it’s a little barrel. Vogue production indeed prevents scarcity from driving the price, but I reckon the unfashionably extracted, oaky style depresses it further. If they sold all their holdings to Freddy Mugnier, the price would go up supply notwithstanding.
It makes me angry, too, but less about the wine than the fact that Ronald Coase has a Nobel Prize while I have managed to disprove his theorem while drinking, and don’t have a Nobel Prize.
+1. Haven’t liked much of Vogue since 1990. No recent samples—got too expensive. Faiveley makes more Musigny now, got a second parcel. All grand cru Burgundy costs too much!
I make no claims on anyone’s Nobel, but Chambolle is my favorite village and it’s endlessly frustrating that 75% of it top terroir is held by a producer who makes wine in a way that, even its fans tell me, “oh, you just need to try the wines from the 70s”. First, where am I going to get perfectly cellared 70s Musigny? Second, why make wines that way, when Mugnier’s wines are so delicious. There’s no prize for making wine that’s undrinkable for the first 40 years of its life.
To some extent, sure - I can’t live in the wooden cases the wine comes in and it has yet to any of my medical issues. But the market does a reasonable job - there’s plenty of relatively cheap grand cru you can buy, you just don’t want to drink it
My understanding is that they want to retain their traditional winemaking. Having had some of the younger wines (including at Paulee), I didn’t notice a change.