Bordeaux 2007 'attractive' merchants say March 20, 2008
Stuart Peskett
Two of the UK's leading en primeur merchants believe that the 2007 Bordeaux vintage will confound expectations - but prices will still be a dilemma.
Berry Bros & Rudd sales director Simon Staples told decanter.com that although given the weather conditions the vintage should be 'dreadful', he found some of the wines 'attractive' and 'approachable'.
'Château Giscours, for example, was soft and sexy, rather than butch and manly. Overall, I think 2007 will be a more attractive, succulent vintage than 2006.'
And Ed Cottrell, director of fine wine at Bibendum, likened the 2007s to the 2002 and 2004 vintages the latter recently hailed by Decanter as 'the last affordable Bordeaux vintage'.
Cottrell said, 'The wines are very approachable. They don't have the depth or ageing potential of 2005, but they are quite accessible and forward. I think they're similar to 2002 or 2004, perhaps less floral than 2004.
The '64 days of unbroken sunshine' that Bordeaux enjoyed in the autumn added up to a 'fantastic finish' for the vintage, Cottrell said.
'Those words aren't papering over the cracks of a bad vintage there are little nuggets of greatness, in Margaux, for example.'
He added that modern winemaking practices and economic reality meant good vintages are easier to come by.
'Good winemakers over there will always make good wine. There isn't as much vintage variation as there used to be. There are some big economic enterprises in Bordeaux, and these guys can't afford to drop a vintage.'
And on the crucial issue of price, Colin Hay, professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield believes that 2007 levels will fall between those of 2004 and 2006.
In an article in the forthcoming June issue of Decanter - the Bordeaux issue he says, 'The château proprietors of the Médoc classed growths face a more difficult pricing dilemma this year than they have for a long time - arguably since at least 1997.'
While the first growths are likely to show a modest rise on 2006 prices, the rest of Bordeaux is going to have to be more realistic.
'The brutal reality is that, in the absence of the kind of positive evaluations of the vintage from leading international critics that virtually no one expects, these wines will be difficult to sell without a substantial drop in release prices. That, I don't think, will happen.
'More likely is that, for the more ambitious châteaux, prices will be set at close to 2006 levels. For those more desperate to secure an injection of funds, 2007s will be released at somewhere between 2006 and 2004 prices.'
So the first growths should release at around £2,800-3,500. Hay then predicts, as a rough estimate, prices further down the rankings should be at the level that most 2006s are selling for now.
This will see top seconds like Leoville Barton coming in at £340-380, and third growths like Kirwan at £190-240.
Have your say... To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field
I would however add that the pound is over 10% weaker than the euro at the equivalent period last year so effectively the first 10% of any price decrease will be wiped out for the UK market because of the exchange rate. For UK customers it is too simplistic merely to look at the differential in ex cellars pricing in euros between last year and this
Also to say that the prices will be somewhere between those of 2004 and 2006 is a broad spread to say the least, as the differential in prices to us from the negoce in euros ex cellar for most chateaux between the two vintages was at least 40% with many well over 60%!
Dan Snook, Averys Wine Merchants, UK
I entirely agree with Dan Snook, on both points. The pound-euro and dollar-euro exchange rates are major concerns for chateaux proprietors and will have a big bearing on pricing strategies. For this reason, and many others, it is very difficult to predict release prices at this point - though my piece in the June issue will go some way towards doing this. As I will explain in more detail there, amongst the non first growths I expect quite a spread of release prices, with some chateaux very close to their 2004 release price but with others rather closer to 2006 levels. For the first growths, I will argue, we can expect to see release prices around the current value of their 2006s.
Colin Hay
The headline of this article should continue, "'Reap What You Sew'," say wine consumers."
A. Skroback, New York, USA
Thankfully it may give us Australians a chance to buy without being crippled by our dollar which has resembled monopoly money in Europe until recently. Imports of quality world wine are on the rise in Australia and it could be a good opportunity to introduce people to the some attractive Bordeaux!
David Gibbons
I have been buying Bordeaux Primeurs for my circle of Clients since the 1970 Vintage, and I am reminded of a conversation I was having a couple of years back with some regular buyers who had recently tasted some very good 1990 Vintage Bordeaux. They asked me why I hadn't purchased a good tranche of these for their cellars. I had to remind them that in 1991 when I had offered them the opportunity to buy the 1990's, they had told me that because of the downturn and crisis in the housing market at the time, they were feeling 'too poor' to buy any primeurs that year. I think the current crisis will make many erstwhile primeurs buyers think twice about investing in the 2007's, and I doubt they will be missing a vintage as good as the 1990.
Alastair Nugent
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