As this en primeur campaign comes to a close, and the world’s fine wine merchants head off to Hong Kong for the biennial Vinexpo wine fair, this seems like a good time to reflect on how it’s gone.
We predicted at the start of the campaign that it would be a disaster if Châteaux did not return to the price levels of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages. Robert Parker also came out on video on his web site with the same message. Sadly, too many Bordeaux proprietors buried their heads in the sand and failed to adjust their prices accordingly. As a result, their wines have failed to sell. We’ve not had a single order, for example, for wines such as Figeac (2008 price £500, 2011 price £750) or Bellevue (2008 price £280, 2011 price £390). Over-priced wines aimed at wine collectors rather than wine drinkers, such as Quintus and La Mondotte, have also completely failed.
13% of Chateaux came out at the same price or more than 2010 (mainly Sauternes, it must be said), 36% were only 10% or less down on 2010 and 20% were only 20% or less down.
The overall average decrease on 2010 has been only 15.81% with an average increase over 2008 release prices of 44.47%. This is totally ridiculous and the proprietors of Bordeaux have only themselves to blame for the failure of most wines to find a market.
Almost as bizarre as the failure to price the wine correctly, has been the decision of some proprietors to wait until the end of the campaign before releasing. Quite what the owners of Talbot, Brane Cantenac, Beausejour Duffau, Ausone, Vieux Château Certan, etc are waiting for, we have no idea!
Some Wine Merchants in this campaign have been guilty of recommending their customers buy average quality wines at inflated prices. Here at Farr Vintners, we have tried to be scrupulously honest and have not even attempted to sell wines that we feel are incorrectly priced. Partly as a result of this honesty, this has been our worst en primeur campaign in terms of wine sold by volume since 1997. Fortunately for us we don’t depend on en primeur business, it’s just a nice bonus in campaigns that work. Here are our en primeur statistics for the last 5 vintages (during the actual campaign):
Denis Durantou of Eglise Clinet, a rare success of the vintage
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However, amongst the many failures there have been a few notable successes. These wines have sold out or we have just a handful of cases remaining:-
Our biggest selling wines have been:
Lafite and the prooftag system - another rare success this year
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