wine retailers get smarter to detriment of us all

WINE TALK
1

I blame every wine board member who said this on the public internet about any futures campaign:
“Waaahh! Why would I pay that?! I’ll just buy older vintage X for less!”
LOL

2

Yes, now everybody is selling and saying this about futures:
“Waaahh! Why would you pay that?! I’ll sell you older vintage X for exactly the same price!”
Ah, capitalism and psychology…I love 'em

3

I’ve seen this as well the past few months with 2002 & 2004. Makes me wish I’d have bought them then. Too expensive now.

4

It’s true that the prices for back vintages of Bordeaux are pulling up closer to the high prices of the newer releases, but I don’t think it’s the case that “ready to drink” good vintages are generally as expensive as or more expensive than the current futures prices.

For example, Pichon Baron 1995 sells for about $80, about the same as the 2008, and about half the price of 2009 futures.

Pontet Canet 1996 is only slightly more than the 2008, and about 50% less than the 2009.

Mouton Rothschild 2009 is about double the price of the 1995 or 1996, and about 50% more than the 1990. You can buy the 1990 for about the same price as the 2007.

The other thing you have to factor is the time value of money. Buying a wine to drink today in today’s dollars is a whole lot cheaper than having bought it 15-20 years ago at the same nominal price. Plus, it saves you allocation of space and/or cost to the storage along the way, as well as the risk of loss along the way.

5

The secondary market is quite funny, and so often follows silly trends…I have been back filling on '05 Burgundy’s lately, and paying about the same or less than the original issue prices (not the inflated hyped release 3x prices) because everyone seems so focused on the upcoming '09’s…madness…

6

But Paul, the 2005s will never be better than the 2005s. The 2009s might be better. What if you don’t have the best wine ever made because you were distracted by the second-best wine ever made? Would you ever forgive yourself [oops.gif]

Cheers,
fred

7

Truer words have never been spoken.

8

Good that you didn’t, Serge. If you did you would be making daily trips to soup kitchen rather than to see pyramids.

9

Fantastic post