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2009 Bordeaux – Amanda Skinner of Private Cellar reports from the merchants’ “front line”
I remember well being in the office during the 1989 Bordeaux campaign and receiving a call from a client (in Hong Kong, as a matter of fact – the Far East thirst for Bordeaux is not as recent as many would have you believe) asking what our price for Château Mouton Rothschild 1989 was and upon satisfying himself that we were in line with other merchants, placing his order for 10 cases. I said that I would make some enquiries and telex him later in the day with confirmation. I called a négociant in Bordeaux, placed the order, confirmed it with the client and everyone was happy. The first part of that story – the requests for 2009 First Growths in quantities of ten cases or more – is happening every day to every wine merchant across the globe but the ability to simply telephone a négociant in Bordeaux and buy ten cases of a First Growth, without any supporting purchases, is long gone; only your most long-standing, loyal and supportive customers are going to be offered your precious allocations of not just the First Growths but many other wines from the Bordeaux firmament this year.
29th March – Union des Grands Crus Tastings in Bordeaux
The excitement surrounding 2009 started as the grapes came off the vines, in September and October and had been built steadily. The first opportunity for widespread tasting is afforded by the UGC En Primeur tastings in Bordeaux which took place during the week of 29th March. There were apparently over 5,000 visitors to the tastings this year with these tannic, embryonic wines being positively received and the wine journalists started to publish their pronouncements and ratings shortly after.
20th April – Château d’Angludet is released
The initial releases started in the third week of April and probably the most important of that initial volley was Château d’Angludet which came out at a modest 10% premium on its 2005 release price. This Sichel family owned property has a loyal following, particularly in the UK, and is correctly priced for its quality but it sold out in a matter of hours, which is unprecedented.
21st April – 2009: a phenomenal success for Sauternes and Barsac
The 2009 vintage is an exceptional one for Sauternes and, with a few notable exceptions, their pricing has been eminently reasonable. With rain on the 19th/20th September followed by fine autumnal weather, the noble rot was able to race through the vineyards ensuring that infection was rapid and consistent and the picking was condensed into an unusually short period with most properties finishing their harvests in the first ten days of October. Thus in 2009 all the wines displayed good botrytis characteristics, with lovely honeyed fruit and a fine, racy level of acidity. They will make fine old bones thanks to their lovely acidity and sugar. The Sauternes started to release their prices; Château Bastor Lamontagne stands out charging a modest 2.5% more than their 2007 (the most recent equivalent vintage in quality terms for the great dessert wines of Bordeaux).
27th April – Robert Parker pronounces
Robert Parker, the American wine critic, published his influential ratings on 27th April and whilst acknowledging the widely held view that this is not a straightforward and homogenous vintage in terms of quality, he describes the best wines as possibly being historic, the vintage being magical and believes that it may be the finest that he has tasted in 32 years of assessing young Bordeaux. His 2008 review was very bullish and this enthusiasm was not shared by the international wine press or wine merchants. We wondered how he would follow this very positive review with 2009 which was so patently a better vintage – the answer is that he has added an asterisk to wines which may have received the same score (out of 100) as 2008 with an additional * indicating that 2009 is the best vintage he has ever tasted at the château. Most people, whether critics or wine merchants agree that and that no specific appellations can be highlighted as being uniformly strong but that some very great wines have been made, which may in time eclipse 2005 and 2000. With Sterling so weak against the Euro, this vintage is already at least 25% more expensive than 2005 before the château owners start to increase their prices. This alone would, in a normal market, curb demand but judging by the activity we have witnessed thus far, it has not.
28th April – the exceptional Ets J P Moueix wines
As one of the UK merchants through which the Moueix family of Libourne, Pomerol choose to distribute their wines in the UK, the next releases we made at Private Cellar were from their stable. The Moueix price their wines according to quality and if you study the graph of their release prices over the past twenty years, you see that in lesser years the prices are lowered to maintain a good price : quality ratio. When you consider that Christian Moueix regards 2009 as “one of the greatest vintages of the last 60 years and already a benchmark for its power and natural concentration”, their price increases on their 2005 release prices are very reasonable and it is no wonder that we sold out almost immediately.
The Lafite story
Château Lafite is in very high demand in China. “Lafite” translates into Mandarin in a very favourable way and it is by far and away the most recognisable “brand” in China. As well as Château Lafite, Domaine Barons de Rothschild also owns Carruades de Lafite, Duhart Milon, Rieussec and L’Evangile. Lafite’s second wine Carruades is experiencing a similar level of demand and attendant price increases to the grand vin and Duhart too. To give you an idea of just how powerful this demand is, Duhart 2005 was sold on the UK market at £240 / case In Bond. Unlike most wines, it suffered a minimal reduction in price during the post-credit crunch months of October – December 2008, but was still, however, trading at double its release price. Thereafter the price has continued to climb to today’s peak of £795. The 2009 story is even more extraordinary – it came on to the Bordeaux market in the third week of May at a 46% premium on the 2005 release price and almost immediately the price started to climb – Liv-Ex the international fine wine exchange has already traded the wine at £875 and offers, as we go to print, are on the exchange at £1,000. One can only wonder what will happen to Lafite itself when it is released – Liv-Ex have an offer at £11,750 which has caused quite a stir amongst the wine trade who are expressing disapproval of this “short selling”.
10th May – a quiet start to May
With a series of Bank Holidays in France, May tends to be a challenging month in which to do any business and 2010 was no different to any other year. Nothing much happened until 10th May when Gazin was released and sold well in spite of its 40% increase on its 2005 price and 56% up on 2008, and to which Parker gave an identical score (albeit minus the *).
18th May – a surge of wines
Some excellent Right Bank wines released their prices, amongst which Château Fonroque owned by Jean-Jacques Moueix and his family and one of our favourites. At just 25% up on the 2005 price we were happy to recommend it and bought as much as we could. Hubert de Boüard, owner of l’Angélus released his Lalande de Pomerol, La Fleur de Boüard with a reduction on his 2005 release price of 2% which is to be applauded. A few minutes later, Les Hauts de Pontet, the second wine of highly rated Pauillac Pontet Canet, hit the Bordeaux market and was snapped up in a frenzy. They had frozen their release price in the past three vintages and increased their price by 38% for their 2009.
20th May – a tentative Left Bank release
The St Estèphe rising star, Les Ormes de Pez, broke rank with their superb 2009 early on 20th May at a modest 13.7% increase on their 2005 price and their strategy to offer value was well rewarded with a very enthusiastic market. No other major names followed and by now, many of the Château owners and top négociants were packing their suitcases to fly to Hong Kong for VinExpo.
The Far East affect
VinExpo, the annual international wine and spirits fair, took place in Hong Kong during the week of 24th May which saw le tout Bordeaux de-camping to the Far East. Attendance was high with the Bordeaux master classes over-subscribed and the talk of the show was the 2009 vintage. Apart from the Lafite factor, as outlined above, it is questionable about how much interest will turn into confirmed orders. Stories were circulating during the UCG week in March about Chinese buyers promising to wire cash to the négociants in order to secure guaranteed allocations of the top wines. It has become established practice between the Bordeaux négociants and their customers world-wide that wines are allocated on a reward basis – that is you buy throughout the year, show loyalty buying vintage in vintage out and that you buy in a “balanced” way, taking quantities of the less sought-after wines in order to maintain your allocation of the most popular wines. Pre-payments and payment of inflated prices are not a new phenomenon – it happens with new entrants to the En Primeur market in every “hot” vintage.
31st May – the lull is over…
After a quiet week, we were expecting some serious action on Bank Holiday Monday and we did get a couple of interesting releases, most notable of which was Château Bernadotte, the Cru Bourgeois purchased by the redoubtable Madame de Lencquesaing, former Châtelaine of top Second Growth Pichon Longueville Lalande. It has a unique terroir, close to Pauillac, and it has undergone serious investment and with the benefit of the expertise of the Lalande winemaking team, the result is a really stand out wine in 2009 and at an increase of 24% on the 2005 release price it represents good value.
2nd June - …or is it?
The last 24 hours has seen Pichon stable mate Château de Pez, St Estèphe come on to the market and from the southern Médoc, Château Cantemerle but, as the Spiral Cellar newsletter goes to press, the word on the street is that we have a long wait ahead of us for the “big guns” to be released and that the campaign is likely to go on into July. With Cos d’Estournel being sold short at £3,000 a case and a market place which will get frustrated if they have to wait too long, will these “big guns” have a market at these unprecedented prices and will they generate the interest they anticipate if they wait too long? When you consider that you can buy the mature and sublime 1982 Cos d’Estournel at £2,500 a case and 1982 Ducru Beaucaillou at £2,000, do they not look like a good buy? Or 1995 Cos d’Estournel at £1,000 and 1996 Ducru Beaucaillou at £900 a case. Not inexpensive but fabulous examples of these great Châteaux and looking like relatively good buys. It will be interesting to see what happens to prices of earlier vintages in the coming months….
