Mon

15

Sep

2014

Clos Fourtet: the Point being...

As the Bordeaux 2003s were re-scored by Robert Parker, a perennial performer received an upgrade - namely in the form of Saint Emilion’s Clos Fourtet. This should have come as no real surprise; many of its back vintages have received upgrades, particularly since Philippe Cuvelier took ownership of the vineyard in 2001 (subsequently handed down to his son, Mathieu).


Situated to the west of the town, with Angelus just a little further on, the 19 hectares are planted with mainly Merlot, but a surprising 10% Cabernet Sauvignon often makes it into the first wine, along with a more predictable splash of Cabernet Franc.

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Tue

02

Sep

2014

Eis-cool wines with haut performance

Take a look through the most expensive wines on Wine Searcher and one family name makes a repeated appearance. Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm crafts Rieslings that are standard bearers among wines from Germany’s Mosel region, and their most expensive wines are, of course, those with higher residual sugars (yet crystalline acidic precision) that are only produced when vineyard conditions are just right.

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Thu

21

Aug

2014

The Bottle Exchange

Liv-ex, the fine wine exchange, has made the annual swap of vintages in the Fine Wine 50 (the index that tracks the ten most recent physical vintages of the First Growths). This year the index replaced the 2001s with 2011s, but which would you prefer to have in your cellar?

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Thu

07

Aug

2014

Dominus gives the Liv-ex 1000 strength

The remaining positive sub-index of the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 in 2014 is the Rest of the World 50, currently +2% YTD. There are only five wines within this sub-index, and ten recent physical vintages are tracked: for Napa Valley’s Dominus, these are currently 2000-2009.

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Mon

14

Jul

2014

DRC: La Tâche

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has always been the name in Burgundy, and their wines possess an almost mythical quality that is rarely exhumed from Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. The Liv-ex Power 100, which tracks the most powerful brands in fine wine, ranked DRC in first place for 2012, and it currently sits nestled between Latour and Le Pin in 15th place. Demand for DRC is notoriously high for the en Primeur allocations, and the secondary market is ever conscious of fraudulent or refilled bottles.

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Tue

01

Jul

2014

Screamingly High Prices

Following on from last week’s focus on Pomerol, we extend the topic of super-premium pricing to one of Napa Valley’s most iconic ‘cult wines’, Screaming Eagle. The taste profile of these wines differs significantly as Screaming Eagle is always upwards of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, however their production is limited to around 750 cases per annum and in a short space of time they have established a firm reputation for exceptionally high scoring wines.

 

The resulting prices are not dissimilar to those of Le Pin and Petrus, with the most recent vintage, 2011, offering the lowest price point at SFr 1’600 per bottle in bond. In contrast, the highest price is the first vintage, 1992, with a market price of nearly SFr 70’000 per dozen. We explore if the exceptionally high prices of Screaming Eagle can exhibit the same price stability as observed in Pomerol, despite the low trading volumes.

 

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Thu

26

Jun

2014

Super-Premium Pomerol

At the top of the Bordeaux price scale are the wines of Pomerol, a neighbour of St Emilion on the right bank. Petrus has a legendary quality and, combined with its low production, has historically commanded high prices: the 2013 was released at SFr 18’500 per dozen. Paradoxically, these wines have displayed relatively stable prices; for example, where the last 10 vintages of Lafite have fallen around 15% on average over the last twelve months, Petrus has fallen only 5%, with some vintages making small gains.

 

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Wed

18

Jun

2014

Opus One

As Opus One takes all five of the “Major Market Mover” spots in Liv-ex’s June Cellar Watch Report, we ask if this short-term volatility is reflected by sustained performance?

 

Vintage 2005 took the top spot in May with the market price increasing 18.4%, which accounts for most of the 25.4% increase across the last twelve months that has left its market price at just over SFr 3’400 per case. Do take the opportunity to note that the 2004 was upgraded in April’s Wine Advocate to 96 points and has a market price only just over SFr 3’100 per case, and the 2010 with similar scores is under SFr 2’700.

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Fri

06

Jun

2014

Angelus and friends

Chateau Angelus has just revealed that their 2012 vintage will be presented in black bottles imprinted with 21.7 carat gold writing. Signifying the first vintage to be bottled as Premier Grand Cru Classé “A”, it provides a good opportunity to look at the performance of this highest classification of Saint Emilion.

 

Featured in Liv-ex’s Bordeaux Legends Index is the vintage 2000 from all four of the Chateaux that have resided in this top classification since September 2012. Historically, the most expensive of these is the Ausone, which peaked just beyond SFr 2’150 in the summer of 2011, but prices between the four began to converge thereafter:

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Fri

30

May

2014

Dom Pérignon P2 (Oenothèque)

Remuage, dégorgement, dosage. These are all words. For Champagne, these words, amongst many others, signify a rigorous process that contributes to a consistent quality from the region.

 

Dom Pérignon, one of the leading brands from LVMH, has put their technical language to use in a rebranding exercise of their late-release champagne. Previously called Oenothèque, after their wine storage cellar, the second release of vintage champagne is an opportunity to experience the effects of 21 years of lees aging.

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Fri

23

May

2014

2003 - Hot and undervalued?

With extinguished enthusiasm for the 2013 en primeur campaign, it is useful to explore opportunities in the back-vintages of Bordeaux. Read through the tasting notes for Lafite 2003 and two legendary historic vintages are constantly mentioned: 1982 and 1959, which were both characterised by hot summer growing conditions giving rich tannins, albeit low acidity - not unlike 2003. The top 2003 performers were generally from the northern half of the left bank; however some right bank performers did well, such as Ausone’s 100-point wine:

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Thu

15

May

2014

Penfolds (Grange)

Australia’s flagship wine, Penfolds Grange, has long seduced the European market with a palate characterised by exotically spiced black fruits supported by firm, grippy tannins.

 

First produced in 1951 as Penfolds Grange Hermitage, the recommended release price has consistently risen from under A$1, to A$785 (SFr 650) per bottle of vintage 2008 & ’09. The 1976, now holding a maximum Wine Advocate score of 100 points, was the first Australian wine to be released over A$20 and, given its latest auction price of nearly SFr 1,100 per bottle, could have returned over 6,500% to initial purchasers (30% per annum).

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Thu

08

May

2014

Masseto - A Super Second Wine

Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, established 1981, currently has a total of 97 hectares under vine comprising plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon (38ha), Merlot (38ha), Cabernet Franc (12ha), Petit Verdot (7ha), Sauvignon Blanc (3ha), Petit Manseng (1ha) and Viognier (0.5ha). The flagship wine, Ornellaia, is dominated by Cabernet. Separately, a 7ha plot of clay soil, previously planted with olive trees, produced its first Merlot in 1986 that was bottled ‘Merlot di Ornellaia’. The following year it was bottled as Masseto, a name which has now attained a global reputation and which might be considered more of a ‘sister wine’ than a ‘second wine’.

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Wed

30

Apr

2014

Priorat - Prio...right

As the industry benchmark Liv-ex fine wine 100 continues to fall, investors search for non-traditional wines that may show a good return within their portfolio. Our market analysis leads us to explore the increasingly acclaimed region of Priorat in Catalonia.

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Thu

17

Apr

2014

On Carruades de Lafite

Lafite became the first of the first growths to announce their price, at €280 per bottle. In the background, Carruades de Lafite, the second wine of Lafite, was released at an ex-negotiant bottle price of €90 which realistically puts the market price just under €100. How does this compare to the current mid-prices of recent vintages?

Sticky – in a word.

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Mon

14

Apr

2014

Sweet Success in en primeur tastings

Both dry and sweet white wines have scored well above the reds in this vintage that saw a dry, warm summer and warm, damp conditions for the development of noble rot in October. All suffered from poor weather during budburst which had given early indications of small crops for 2013. The early harvesting Sauvignon Blanc grapes were fully ripened and the later harvest of Semillon showed a fresh acidity in the botrytised grapes, creating extremely promising wines.

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Fri

11

Apr

2014

To remove red wine stains...pour on white wine

For 2013 there may be some truth to this suggestion for removing unwanted red wine; the white wines of Bordeaux are a great vintage all round.

 

Where the reds struggled, particularly as a damp autumn affected the merlot harvest, the whites have flourished. Sauvignon Blanc was said to have fully ripened before it was picked, and the later-ripening Semillon was just ripe; giving fresh acidity and floral bouquet to the white wines.

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Thu

03

Apr

2014

In Defence of Release Prices

As prices are announced for the vintage 2013 Bordeaux en primeur campaign, the merchants and market commentators often feed back their view on release prices. Certainly the early release of 5me Cru Pontet Canet prompted the question: why not buy the 2008, which has the same Liv-ex mid-price, comes with 96 Parker points and 17.5 points from Jancis Robinson?

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Fri

28

Mar

2014

Returns Beyond the First Growths

2008 was a turning point for the wine investment industry, as higher returns began to be found amongst the first growths of Bordeaux that earned lower ratings. In this post we examine if this phenomenon extended beyond the first growths, starting with the second wines.

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Thu

27

Mar

2014

Returns Across the First Growths

Greater returns can currently be found amongst lower scoring vintages from first growth vineyards of Bordeaux. This pattern has been previously demonstrated for Chateau Margaux using the industry benchmarks of Liv-ex mid-prices and Parker ratings.

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Sat

22

Mar

2014

Margaux - across the vintages

Our previous blog post showed that over the last 10 years, the 91-93 point Margaux 2001 had appreciated in value more than the 100 point 2000. Now we consider if this is a more general insight into returns across the vintages.

 

Across the last 20 vintages of Margaux (1991 – 2010) there is a negative correlation between the 10-year return as shown by Cellar Tracker and Parker’s score; that is to say that a high scoring wine will often have low returns and vice versa.

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Fri

21

Mar

2014

Two Vintages

10 years ago I bought some Margaux first growths. Robert Parker had just upgraded the 2000 vintage to a perfect 100 points and I thought that it would be a fitting addition to my cellar. Impatient as ever, I also wanted something good to drink in the shorter term, and so I added three cases of the 2001, rated down at 91-93 points but maturing fast. The 2001 was trading at just under 1/3 of the price of the 2000 when I bought them, which seemed reasonable for the lesser vintage.

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