Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Are we Seeing an Upturn in Fortunes for Bordeaux?

2014 has been a difficult year so far for Bordeaux. However there are signs that the downturn is coming to an end.

Last week Liv-ex (London International Vintners Exchange) reported that its top five 'market movers' were five vintages of the Bordeaux First Growth, Haut Brion (1995,2000,2006,2009,2010). This was great news for Bordeaux, not least because two of the successful vintages were the twin powers of 2009 and 2010. The best back-to-back vintages since 1989 and 1990 caused a huge interest in the market, but prices could not be sustained and started to see a small decrease from 2012 onwards. Now it would appear the worst is over, and these two great vintages can start to see the type of growth that everyone knows they can achieve.
This week it was reported that the 2014 Bordeaux vintage was 50% up on last year's meager vintage, and showing signs of good growth. Yes, it is early doors, but any good news from now from France's most famous wine-growing region is being pounced upon.

We have started to see some other positive signs in the market of late:

Auction Prices have begun to rise e.g. DRC Romanee-Conti 2009 case sold for over $150,000 and older Bordeaux vintages have begun to see a rise in popularity -5 bottles of Latour 1961 recently sold for just under £10,000.

Margaux and Haut Brion have accounted for 21% of the trade by value on the market, more than the other three First Growths combined (Lafite, Latour, Mouton).

With the run-up to the Autumn Festivals in China and the Christmas & New Year period coming, the trade is confident the final half of 2014 will be more productive than the first half.


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