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A Wide Gulf Divides the Wine Trade
Sunday, 24th July, 2011
- David Farmer
The sale of the 2010 classified growths of Bordeaux have set a cracking pace with most increasing prices and the 1st Growths moving up at least 10%. They may go higher as traders judge the market. Fantastic stuff, and for those with the money to buy 1st Growths, you can expect to pay over £1000 a bottle by 2012. The 'lesser' wines or seconds made by the 1st Growths, from younger vines or parts of the vineyards with lower quality fruit now fetch what the 1st sold for back in 2000.
These wines illustrate the enormous gulf which separates this end of the wine trade from what the average drinker pays. The average price in a U.K. supermarket for a bottle of wine is £4.52 and it’s well under $10.00 in Australia. The great wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux create the glamour and boy do they create profit.
The Financial Times reported, June, 2011; “We have sold about 40,000 cases of Bordeaux, which at this point is half the volume of last year,” says Simon Staples, sales and marketing director of wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, one of the world’s biggest buyers of Bordeaux. Last year, it sold £110m worth of the 2009 vintage.” This one prestigious London merchant sells in value more than all the premium wines made in Australia. We have a long way to go.
As for the quality I was sent an email from another of the famous London merchants, Corney and Barrow offering a case of Chateau Cheval Blanc 2010 for £9,800 per case of 12 bottles (75cl) in Bond London; (2009 release price £8,900 per case of 12 bottles). Their score was 17 to 17.8/20, though I think this merchant house is not posting a universal score but rather one to be used only in the rarified world of fine Bordeaux-at least I hope so. Still for this money you do not get a 20/20 wine.
Still if this is out of your price bracket Mr. Staples of Berry Bros and Rudd does offer a budget special; "but for less affluent wine drinkers there is still value to be had. Mr. Staples says 2010 wines at the "quaffing end of the spectrum" priced at £120 to £300 a case are "miles more interesting than the 2009 vintage", adding, "we’re selling bucketloads of those."
Ah yes, the quaffing end of the spectrum which for most consumers means a $3.99 special from Dan Murphy or a $10.00 cask.
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