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Bordeaux 2010: Ducru Beaucaillou drops in price, 'trumps' Cos

Tuesday 28 June 2011
by Jane Anson in Bordeaux, and Adam Lechmere

Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, one of the most-praised wines of 2010, has dropped 16% in price.

Ducru Beaucaillou: 'best St Julien this year'

Bruno Borie gave the 2010 en primeur campaign a boost yesterday, when he released Ducru Beaucaillou at €150 ex-negociant, a drop of 16.7% from 2009, despite most critics saying it was the best example of the wine for years.

‘This was smart timing, especially after Cos d’Estournel earlier in the day, which did also drop its price (-5.7% to €198 ex-negociant), but not by a large enough percentage to get buyers excited,’ one Bordeaux negociant said.

Some London merchants are reporting slow sales, and lack of demand, for Cos d’Estournel, which is reckoned to have been ‘trumped’ by Ducru, as Stephen Browett of Farr Vintners put it.

‘By being cheaper, and with equal or better scores, Ducru has rather trumped Cos this year.’

Ducru was almost universally lauded as one of the best wines of the vintage during En Primeur this year.

Steven Spurrier, in Decanter, described its 'superb colour' and 'explosion of fruit above great depth', and said it was 'hard to imagine a better Ducru'.

Browett also reported that Ducru quickly released a second tranche, 10% up on the first, which had ‘sold out so quickly’.

At Bordeaux Index Gary Boom said Cos was ‘very quiet’, and at Fine & Rare, Simon Davies told Decanter.com ‘Ducru is the best St Julien this year so we will be encouraging our customers to buy.

‘Cos hasn’t sold as well as we would have liked or expected, given how good the wine is.’

Simon Staples, however, at Berry Bros, said he was 'delighted' to have sold 400 cases of Cos, which was 'far better than I thought'.

Ducru’s second wine, Croix de Beaucaillou, came out at €33.60 ex- negociant, a raise from €25.80 in 2009, but this was widely expected after its relaunch, and label redesign by Jade Jagger.

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Have your say!

Max Lalondrelle
July 21 15:54

Reece, 1474 6 packs were sold in total, we have 16 left...happy to show the orders too.

Max Lalondrelle
BBR Bordeaux Buyer

Peter Rhodes
July 21 15:37

Reece, please, move on.

Reece Clarke
July 20 15:09

Max - While you’re at it can we inspect the Mouton order book too?

‘I was amazed that we sold 1500 six-bottle cases of Mouton in the first 24 hours,’ Simon Staples at Berry’s said – Decanter, Tuesday 19th July.

Oliver hartley
July 14 09:30

How magnificently humour-less.

Max Lalondrelle
July 12 13:24

Dear Mr Clarke, I would be delighted to invite you for a glass of Champagne in our offices in St James's Street where I will be able to demonstrate to you how much we have really sold... not a kind of game I usually enter but if C&B have sold 5 cases and Bindex 40 it does not mean that we are lying. If we have sold less than 400 I will buy all of you a good lunch with some vintage Cos.

Max Lalondrelle
BBR Bordeaux Buyer

Oliver Hartley
July 11 19:32

Perhaps I could suggest a pork pie eating competition at No.3 between Reece, Simon, M. Prats and myself, judged by Jancis, the winner gets a case of Cos 2010, donated by BBR? Joss, you can sell tickets...just like the old days on the bus.

Reece Clarke
July 08 16:06

Oliver, hope all is well. Glad to be the source of amusement! All a bit of harmless fun. C'mon, add to the debate, how many did C&B shift and were not counting Pagodes, Goulee etc? I spoke to the Bindex boys, they sold around 40 cases in all and they are not exactly small operators. They fell about laughing when I told them the Berry's 24 hour Le Mans Cos story, renamed '407 Gate'. Could come down to pork pies at dawn in the middle of St James's, and if I were you, I'd sling one in the Joss Fowler direction!!

Joss Fowler
July 08 12:38

Is it the pork pie aspect that attracts you, Mr Hartley?

Jean-Guillaume PRATS
July 08 11:35

After checking with all our major Bordeaux negociants, I can confirm that BBR has purshased substantial volumes of COS 2010. I am not at all surpised by the volumes sold by Mr Simon STAPLES and his team. They have indeed a world wide distribution including Japan and India (not to mention HK) where COS has historicaly a very strong following. YES the bordelais have sold their wines much to late this year but with a certain succes given the ambiance in the world. BBR is one of the very top players in the world of Bordeaux and 500 cases of COS sold seems conservative to me.
Jean-Guillaume PRATS
Château COS d'ESTOURNEL

Oliver Hartley
July 06 18:06

Hysterical. This brief exchange has given many of us in the trade something to giggle about during this frustrating last few weeks. Thank you boys...fight, fight, fight!

Jackson Taylor
July 02 00:38

Don't think so Reece, sorry.

But by all means prove me wrong in your defamation proceeding.

Reece Clarke
July 01 16:03

Simon - Cos was released on Monday 27th, the Decanter article was published on the 28th meaning you must have been quoted on the 27th or 28th. Not only have you claimed to have sold 407 cases, you've sold them in about 24 hours which means you have sold 1.6% of the average annual production (25,000 cases), in around one day. Just one company from hundreds worldwide. I looked at your website the day you posted your response, you showed 68 six packs available then, you still had 68 six packs yesterday and ahem, you still have 68 six packs today. Strange how such a hugely popular wine has suddenly grinded to a halt?

Let's just put it down to a bit of salesman's propaganda as speaking to some of the 20 or so guys I deal with in the trade,like me, they simply dont believe you either.

Jackson - that ones left the ground.

Jackson Taylor
June 29 16:37

I think we can say that one's been dispatched to the boundry.

Simon Staples
June 29 11:59

Dear Mr Clarke,
Your comments questioning my integrity and honesty have been brought to my attention by one of our clients. We have sold exactly 407 cases of Cos, and still selling. For your interest/information, it has been a 60/40 split between the UK/Asian businesses. Last year we sold 1049 cases.
As much as I would agree that this campaign has been turgid, confounding, expensive, and overall exasperating because of the sheer duration, lack of momentum due to the seemingly totally disorganised nature of how and when the prices are released, the wines by and large are exceptional and there is true value is so many wines less than say £300 and dare I say it up to £1250 in many instances. However I cannot agree with you with declaring it,to be an "unsuccessful campaign". Berry Bros have sold more En Primeur 2010 than in any other year in its history apart from 2009 and 2005 and we have yet to allocate many of the Grand Vin that are still releasing.P.S.I'd be delighted to recommend a wine to match with pork pies and chat over their merits any time you are in sunny Hampshire. Hey ho, back to buying 100 cases of Rieussec to get a case of Lafite

cnockaert
June 29 09:52

This shows more is going on behind the curtains ! This primeur campaign gives the impression that money has no value anymore.

reece clarke
June 28 18:06

Can we believe Mr Staples statement that he has sold 400 cases of Cos?

Its certainly not what the trade are affirming, in fact to the contrary.

Good old Berry's. Nice attempt at a few porkies to try and get people behind this campaign which must go down as one of the must overpriced and unsuccesful campaigns in recent memory.

Bordeaux 2010: Ducru Beaucaillou drops in price, 'trumps' Cos

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