2009 vintage could reach €1000 a bottle
IN A widely speculated market where much has been said regarding the “vintage of the century”, Bordeaux’s top 2009 wines could reach prices as high as €1000 per bottle by the end of summer, experts are predicting.
Decanter report that “Setting prices for the first growths and other major properties is an arcane business, but most observers are certain they will go high, inflated by many successive ‘tranches’ or releases of stock from the chateaux.”
Some have said that the gap in price between the First Growths and the rest “will be enormous,” as one grower said adding that the best could top €1000 per bottle in some cases.
Robert Parker, who published his scores recently, is of the same opinion.
Some negociants have said that despite the recession, prices could start at €300, similar to 2005.
Herve Berland, managing director of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, told the online wine magazine that “a change in consumers’ post-recession buying behaviour would be reflected in the pricing of 2009.
“On the positive side it’s an exceptional vintage. On the negative side, we’re still in crisis, and even as we come out of it, consumer habits have changed.
“We are going to have to examine very carefully what the consumer is prepared to pay.”
Bordeaux 2009 – a vintage to remember?
ON publishing his scores, Robert Parker certainly agrees, describing it as “An incredibly exciting vintage of opulence, power and richness”. It may even be the “best Bordeaux vintage of recent times”.
Prices? Who can tell? But many speculate: the top Chateaux could reach €1000 a bottle by the end of the summer! First Growths will remain elusive to all but the largest of purses… But what of “the rest”?
From Vineyards Direct, supplying to the Irish market say they “are busy and firmly committed to tracking down the best possible selection of the rest.
Their aim is to put together an “En primeur” collection totalling 20 wines “of real value” they say.
They have, in bond pricing per case:
Château Beaumont, Haut Médoc 2009 €110
Château Forcas Dupre, Listrac-Médoc 2009 €120
Château La Tour de By, Médoc 2009 €136
Château Lanessan, Haut Médoc 2009 €138
Château Lilian Ladouys, St Estephe, Cru Bourgeois, 2009 €155
Château d’Angludet, Margaux, 2009 €246
Wines, when bought would ship late 2011 to early 2012.
