Bordeaux 2023 market analysis: Subdued reaction to Cos d’Estournel’s 38% cut

St-Estèphe second growth, Château Cos d’Estournel was the big draw among today’s releases but reaction to the offers feels muted.

The estate cut its 2023 release price by 38.7% against its 2022 offer. Despite the deep discount, several commentators picked out buying opportunities among the its back vintages, and one merchant said, ‘we won’t be endorsing it’.

Margaux third growth, Château d’Issan cut its price by 27% and there were smaller cuts for Château Pape Clément’s red and white wines.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

Decanter’s ratings

Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent, Georgie Hindle, rated the 2023 Cos d’Estournel 96-points. She described it as, ‘expressive and alive in the glass’, with ‘great texture and structure’.

Issan she rated 95-points, commenting on its ‘lovely fragrance, [of] dried rose petals and raspberry fruit.’

Panos Kakaviatos reviewed Pape Clément for Decanter this year. The red he scored 93-points, noting that ‘the palate comes across a touch over extracted, with tannins coming to the fore.’

Meanwhile, the Blanc he scored 95-points, saying that while it had ‘breed and polish’, it was also, ‘one of the brightest – and most non-opulent Pape Clément whites that I can recall tasting en primeur.’

He added it had the potential for a higher score but felt ‘light on its feet’ – one to revisit after a little more élévage.

Cos d’Estournel release

The grand vin from Cos d’Estournel was being offered at €114 per bottle ex-négociant. UK merchant offers stand at £1,440 per case of 12 bottles in-bond (IB).

Despite the 38% cut, fine wine marketplace Liv-ex noted that: ‘It [the 2023] remains one of the more expensive vintages available on the market.’

The 2018 and 2019 in particular, are currently available at discounts of 21.5% and 19.4% respectively.

Second label, Les Pagodes de Cos, was released alongside the grand vin for £396 per case (IB). And the white wine, Cos d’Estournel Blanc, was also released at the same price as the red – £1,440 per dozen (IB).

Issan pricing

The Margaux estate’s 2023 wine is priced at €37.2 per bottle ex-négociant, a cut of little over 27% on the price of the 2022 release.

Prices from UK merchants per dozen are £450 (IB). Liv-ex’s analysis, again, suggested it was priced above what might be considered ‘fair value’, and some back vintages – such as 2019 – could be good alternatives for collectors.

Pape Clément’s duo

Pessac-Léognan cru classé Pape Clément released its red and white 2023 duo for €58.2 p/b ex-négocaint and €90 p/b respectively.

The estate has not lowered its prices from last year as much as others, down 6% for the red and 8% for the white.

Those looking to buy from a UK merchant would expect to pay £708 per dozen (IB) for the red and £1,092 for the white.

With regards the red wine, as Liv-ex noted: ‘At this price, today’s release is the one of the most expensive vintages of the past decade on the market.’

Why isn’t 38% enough?

This year’s en primeur campaign has been dominated by talk of cuts in price. Some of these have been substantial, often over 25%.

However, even large cuts have not always been greeted with praise or, indeed, much interest.

Speaking to Decanter, Corney & Barrow’s Joe Muller explained that: ‘Each estate is obsessed with their particular discount, but how that translates to the market is very different.

‘A cut of 25% more sounds very nice but with prices up by over 50% since 2019, it looks less compelling.’

As the Liv-ex analysis has often shown, with prices having risen so dramatically with the 2022 vintage, even a price cut of 38% isn’t always enough to bring these 2023 releases back in line with similarly-rated vintages.

Therefore, depending on how each property has been managing their prices, big cuts don’t automatically translate to what are often describe as ’compelling’ or ‘fair’ prices.

Indeed, sometimes smaller cuts do make a new wine seem worth buying. Muller explained that sales of Lynch-Bages had been very successful, with the merchant selling over 300 cases in the last few days.

The estate cut its price by 33%, but that was enough to make it the least-expensive of its most recently-released vintages, and collectors responded.

Yesterday’s late releases

Wednesday’s releases were dominated by Ausone and Château Ducru-Beaucaillou.

Towards the end of the day, however, there were some bonus releases from Château Malescot-St-Exupéry, out at £390 per dozen (IB), and Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse for £288 per case (IB).

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• Bordeaux 2023 releases: Price cuts in early campaign
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