Hospices de Beaune betters 2002

A few hours before the auction, held in Beaune last Sunday, Hospices director Antoine Jacquet said he was worried by the situation. Lower prices would mean ‘less money for the hospital,’ he said.

He need not have worried. The €3.4m this 143rd edition of the auction brought is close to what the highly-regarded 2002 vintage made.

The Domaine des Hospices de Beaune is a non-profit organisation which owns around 55ha of vineyard land in Burgundy. Every year in November it sells its new crop at the Hospices auction, which has become a general indicator of expected prices for the rest of the region.

Louis-Fabrice Latour, president of the négociants syndicate and head of Maison Louis Latour said the good result was ‘thanks to the small quantities and exceptional vintage.’ He added, ‘This 21.4% increase should be a warning to our consumers. The market rates might also rise by springtime, and importers might be well inspired to buy soon.’ Latour said he would be increasing prices by 10% for the American market.

Few other négociants were promising such a rise. Albéric Bichot of Maison Albert Bichot said, ‘We’re not happy about the price increase, but we’re happy about the renewal of interest.’

Many at the auction were cheered by the strong Japanese and American presence in Beaune over the weekend. Only negociants may bid at the sale but they do so on behalf of foreign clients. It was considered ‘a good sign’ that Americans were there in force, Pierre-Henri Gagey of Maison Louis Jadot Gagey said. Other negociants said they hoped this meant the end of Franco-American bad feeling and unofficial boycotts of French products, as a result of France’s refusal to back the US over the Iraq war.

And as in Bordeaux, there is a good deal of argument over the quality of the vintage. While deep-pocketed investors are very interested in a unique low-yield vintage, some commentators don’t see 2003 as outstanding. The Pinot Noir is characterised by ‘low but sufficient acidity, balanced by a large richness of supple, tender and very ripe tannins,’ as Jean-Claude Mitanchey, cellar master at the Château de Mersault described it, but most agreed it would not show the same balance as the 2002s.

The whites in some areas showed great structure – but in others they were considered less lively and expressive. ‘I think it will be a white vintage to drink early,’ Olivier Lamy of Domaine Hubert Lamy said.

The increase in prices was mainly fueled by top-quality wines. Corton-Charlemagne went up 46%, Mazis-Chambertin 36%, whereas small appellations like Monthélie or Savigny-les-Beaune fetched lower prices than last year. Savigny Cuvée Girard showed a 6.5% decrease, Monthélie 14.9%.

‘There has been a crisis for the top wines, and it might well be over, but the small appellations are still suffering,’ Bertrand Devillard of maison Antonin Rodet said, adding a cautious note of optimism. ‘We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have passed the worst of the crisis.’