As is traditional at this time of year, we thought that we would let our customers and suppliers know how Farr Vintners has performed during the last 12 months. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your tremendous support and loyalty. We are delighted to report that 2012 was a record-breaking year for us with sales of £166.2 million, 27% up on 2011 (which was our previous best ever year).
There is no doubt that one of the main reasons for our great sales success in 2012 was the arrival of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage. Heralded by Robert Parker as the greatest vintage of his career, demand for these wines was phenomenal. It is a staggering fact that, by value, nearly 50% of our sales in the last year have been 2009 Bordeaux! Even if this does not turn out to be “the Vintage of the Century”, it’s hard to believe that we’ll have such huge demand for any one vintage ever again as we had for this one. Nevertheless, an additional (and impressive) £36 million worth of 2010 Bordeaux sales were carried forward to appear in next year’s figures and a rather less impressive £8.5m of 2011’s for the year after that.
For those of you who like statistics, here are some details of our sales in 2012 (with 2011’s sales in brackets).
Sales by Volume per Wine Region:
So once again Bordeaux was King. Burgundy sales increased a little despite the tiny quantities of top wines that are produced. Champagne sales fell as did sales of wines from most other regions. Vintage Port remains in the doldrums.
Sales by Value:
In 2012 our top ten best-selling wines by value were all from Bordeaux, but our popular Puech Haut from the Languedoc finished nearly mid table when ranked by volume. Thanks to a massive purchase by us of the delicious 2007 Lagrange this classic Saint Julien storms into the top five and Certan de May is not far behind after we bought nearly the entire production of the 2002 vintage. We sold nearly 1000 cases of our great value “house claret” Chateau Carignan in 2012.
Sales by Volume:
Sales by Value (2011 places in brackets). Yquem and Cheval Blanc are nowhere to be seen as the pricing policy of these LVMH owned properties has harmed sales. Carruades Lafite slides out of the top ten as does its price. Only Pontet Canet challenges the five First Growths. This Chateau is a huge hit with our customers thanks to the outstanding quality and reasonable pricing:
Farr Vintners was the first UK merchant to establish an office in Hong Kong (over 15 years ago) and Jo Purcell and her multi-lingual team continue to contribute nearly half of all our wine sales. The Far East remains an enormous market for Farr Vintners but the UK tops the charts (just) in sales by volume and value.
Sales by Volume:
Sales by Value:
The company not only raised large sums for the British economy in VAT and duty but we also paid £4.5 million in Corporation Tax and donated over £100,000 to charity.
Finally, once again a huge thank you from me to all our staff who continue to make Farr Vintners the world’s most successful wholesale fine wine merchant.
