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Le Pin, Petrus over €1000 per bottle and climbing
July 9, 2007
Sophie Kevany and Jane Anson, in Bordeaux
Bordeaux ultra-blue chip properties Le Pin and Pétrus have finally released their en primeur 2006 wine prices. Both will retail for more than €1000 per bottle.
Le Pin owner Jacques Thienpont said he had released his 2006 wine for €500 per bottle ex-chateau, the same price as the 2005 vintage.
The production of Le Pin in 2006 was 18 barrels, or 5,400 bottles. Thienpont said he had put almost all the 2006 production on the market, keeping back only two barrels or 600 bottles for personal use, for tastings and some for possible sale at a later date.
Thienpont also told decanter.com that just over two weeks ago he had expanded Le Pin to from 2ha to 2.2ha.
'I bought contiguous land from a neighbour, so I now have 2.10 hectares in one block and .10 hectares about 800 metres away,' he said.
The ex-chateau price of Pétrus could not be confirmed, but sources in Bordeaux suggest it was released to the trade last Wednesday at around €450-500 per bottle.
Both of the ultra-exclusive Pomerol properties are distributed privately and are not sold through the Place de Bordeaux system of wine merchants. They are now trading on what is described by merchants in Bordeaux as a 'parallel market'.
Here, Le Pin is currently said to be selling for about €750 per bottle to local merchants, for resale at about €1,000, and Pétrus for about €1,200 for resale at about €1,500.
Frederic Delmas of Etablissement Duclot, which distributes Pétrus for the Moueix family who own the estate, told decanter.com, 'As this is a private company, we don't release prices.'
The Pétrus price was said to have been flashed on the Duclot website on Wednesday night, but it has since been removed.
The UK agents for Pétrus, Corney and Barrow, said they would not have their retail price finalised until next week (as of Monday 16 July). The production from the 11.3ha estate in 2006 was about 30,000 bottles, said Oliver Hartley, Corney and Barrow sales director.
Corney and Barrow also receives a very small Le Pin allocation, but Hartley said this is kept to sell at a later date to a limited number of private customers. Hartley agreed that both wines would retail for more than €1,000 per bottle.
Le Pin and Petrus were both given five stars by James Lawther on decanter.com, with Le Pin 'topping the 2005', the critic says.
Have your say...
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 Fools gold! As with the 1976 reprise of last year 's 71 bordeaux, California Cab's are as good and ten times the value.
Al Cenci, Staten Island NY, USA
I suspect it will not be long before everyone (rather than most of us) realises that these wines are not worth anything approaching their price, and the market will collapse, especially if the super rich Americans stop collecting wine and actually drinking it. The price is based purely on collectable value, and not on what is in the bottle. Petrus or Le Pin (who?) is not a wine I shall be drinking on my deathbed, whereas Lafite and Yquem I hope I will be.
David B, East Dulwich, London, UK
Well the insanity continues... Petrus at €1500... I nearly choked on my cornflakes. Come on guys this is getting daft.
I am bombarded, daily, with wine offers at prices that are so stupidly high and can only be afforded by fools or the very rich.... and the wines wines will not be that amazing – they'll just be very good wine.
I then read the reviews and those marks out of 100 and see other wines rated as similar quality, for a fraction of the price and wonder if these “super wines” have taken over from the Ferrari as the proof of the modern city boy/oligarch's manhood. Makes the days of “Loads of Money” and the 80's yuppies seem relatively restrained.
The upside is that for as long as people want these trophies in their wine cellars and, presumably, their glasses the rest of us at the bottom of the pile will be able to buy very excellent wines at very sensible prices!
Andy Whiteman, Portgate, Devon, UK
Perhaps we should know what the wine from the 0.2 hectares adjacent to Le Pin sold for before the addition to the more famous neighbour. From that we can calculate the rip off factor attached to Red Bordeaux. There will always be a shortage of good Red Burgundy but Bordeaux is literally awash with wine! Perhaps the only good news for those of us who used occasionally to drink top Bordeaux is that the higher prices for less famous wines have raised the quality. And Sauternes is still cheap considering the difficulty of making it!
Jon van der Walt
Would there be any chance they could donate a bottle to your website so giving us readers a chance of winning one. Would be a nice surprise each time i click on the win heading at the top of the page that it doesn't say 'no competition at present', and there is a chance to win a nice bottle of wine.
Gill
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