Not good. Prices are up. Luckily I buy mostly Italian.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2014/03/it-s-official--french-wine-prices-soar
$/E at 1.39 today vs 1.26 not that long ago = 10% increase in wine costs in $. Add in a 3% annual increase (really low!) and over the last 3 years you get a 20% increase in $ terms.
Huh! Imagine that!
Ain’t going to happen! There is no possible way that the Bordelais do not reduce the price substantially for the 2013s. Long gone are the days when you heard, “it might be a bad crop, but there wasn’t much, and we like to keep revenues steady.” They outed themselves when they reraised prices for the 2010s after the record pricing for 2009. Now quality has become the most important factor when they do their pricing, and I have heard few nice things about the 2013s. Expect them to bring prices down, and even so, they will lucky to sell much. These wines are destined to be financed by the negotiants, and sold cheaply either in the French supermarkets, or restaurants, where the prices will have to be low in order to mark up and look reasonably attractive.
I am talking about the more expensive wines. Spare a thought for the estates with little or no name recognition. They will really struggle with tiny and low quality vintages.
Not really. The euro has been at or near this level for most of the past five years:
And it was at $1.60 in 2008.
I’d guess it has more to do with short crops in several vintages and recovering economies.
Is that article supposed to scare us any more? Any really good Bordeaux is already greater than $150 and good village burgundy is near $100. With all due respect the game for French wine is already over except for luxury purchases by the rich or once a year for the non rich passionate buyers.
At this point I wish the market will rise again so I can completely forget about it.
David
They’re not talking about prices in dollars though. So the exchange rate is on top of the raise from France.
I don’t know about Bordeaux and couldn’t care less, but this is not true of Burgundy. There is an ocean of good Burgundy, both villages and 1er cru (and Bourgogne for that matter) for far less than $100. (The 2011 Chandon des Briailles Bourgogne “Louise” last night was lip smacking good; hard to imagine a better wine for Monday night dinner with the family. It’s $20.) IMO, if one is having a difficult time finding good Burgundy for under $100, they either do not really like Burgundy or do not know where to look. I do agree that if one is chasing one or more of the chat board darlings, they may not have much success under $100, but there is a lot of good wine beyond those few.
Disclaimer: I sell Chandon des Briailles and lots of other Burgundy.
David, this isn’t the reality I’m facing with French wines at all. For instance:
a) really good bordeaux to me would be something like Grand Puy Lacoste or Canon and I can find plenty of vintages of both chateaux well below $150/bottle
b) as martin mentions, there are oceans of good village burgundy (and 1ers) well below the $100 threshold too. i’ve been focusing a lot of recent buying on the wines of Simon Bize which typically fall in the $30-$70 range. certainly don’t have the sex appeal of DRC/Rousseau/Meo/etc, but talk about beautiful wines!
c) beaujolais? loire? alsace?
d) northern rhone still has a nice stable of producers that are delivering amazing syrah well below either the $100 or $150 threshold…in fact, too many to name.
Not to get political but rising taxes can’t help - France's Reckoning: Rich, Young Flee Welfare State | CBN News
Sounds like not too many winemakers are getting rich in France.
Well said, Tooch.
As someone who buys 95% French, I don’t agree at all with the post. I’m buying better than “really good” Bordeaux at $50, great QPRs for sub-$40. And that does not even scratch the surface, with tremendous wines coming from Northern Rhone in the under $75 category and world-class Chinons and Beaujolais at sub-$30. My problem is curtailing my spending because there is too much affordable great wines out there, not the issue of curtailing spending cause the wines are too expensive. Just a basic sampling of some recent purchases: 2010 Talbot at $50, 2009 Cantemerle at $33, 2011 Baudry Croix Boisse in the $30s, 2011 Roilette Griffe du Marquis at $35, and 2010 Levet Cote Rotie at sub-$60 (and older vintages in that price still available in the market). All of these wines are high quality, easy to find.
This just in…the Pope is catholic!
So, when did $100-$150 become “reasonable”. So I buy older vintages at those prices now (plus the age thing with me).
This is the primary reason; I have friends who are 100K/btl RM producers and in talking with them the littany of taxes and charges imposed on them by Hollande’s government is staggering.