What are Wines Worth and Pointing Wines
Friday, 26th February, 2010
- David Farmer
The quality English wine merchants Farr Vintners recently sent me and email which included this offer:
Chateau Latour 2003 £7,500/cs
"There are only 10,800 cases (rather than the normal 15,000 - 20,000) of the 2003 Latour, a blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot (13.3% finished alcohol). A prodigious effort, it boasts a saturated purple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of smoke, cedar, crème de cassis, flowers, crushed rocks, and blackberries. Massive and multi-layered, with huge richness and low acidity, it is about as unctuous as a young Latour can be. It could be compared to the 1982, but it may be even more pure, at least at this early stage, than that monumental wine. The level of intensity builds prodigiously in the mouth, and the finish lasts nearly a minute. Disarmingly accessible (although analytically the tannin level is high), I suspect it will ultimately shut down, but it was performing impeccably when I tasted it. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2040+. 100 points, Robert Parker Wine Advocate #164"
Now £7,500 for a case of wine is serious money but I do not begrudge those who have a lot and wish to spend it on Latour. We all benefit as it stokes the belief that the best wines are aspirational.
Before you go ahead and buy though you should consider this. High prices are normally attached to items that have rarity. With 10,800 cases made this wine is not rare. Indeed the stock of very high quality Bordeaux made each year is in excess of 100,000 cases and depending on your quality cut-off point in a bountiful year would approach 200,000 cases.
Assuming that after 7 years, of a good vintage, each case is worth £4,000 we have a total of £400,000,000. Spread over many vintages and you have a very serious business in trading, storing, and commentary. Indeed this sustains a lot of people in the wine trade.
From this we know that these buyers are very scared, or more likely do not care, to look beyond the rarefied Bordeaux and the cache that goes with them; for we also know that there are many wines as good that sell for a fraction of these prices. So next time you hesitate about spending $50 or $100 on a bottle that you know to be brilliant perhaps you should stop and think how lucky you are. An estimate I made years ago, which is still roughly right, is that in a good vintage all of the best quality wine made in Australia would total less than 100,000 cases. If this sold on average for much more than $100 a bottle I would be surprised (I have adjusted for the Grange factor) giving us a value of $120,000,000.
From the Bibendum site I saw a price for Chateau Latour 2008 of £3,600 En Primeur. I am uncertain how much was made but if it was 20,000 cases we have a value of all the fine wine made in Australia. As an aside you can see the urgent task to show the world market that our best wines are worth a lot more. This is easy to say but very hard to do. For consumers though your time to drink the best is now.
If Latour justifies Parker scores, and he is good but cannot go above 100, you may like to reflect on the absurdity of our wine writers who give simple New Zealand sauvignons and heaven help us roses, 90 plus points.
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