Today brought several key 2012 releases, including top Right
Bank wines Ausone and Cheval Blanc. (The Liv-ex En Primeur Pages have comprehensive coverage of
2012 prices, scores and opinions.)
From the beginning the campaign has proved tough going for merchants, with the market still reeling from the effects of the overpriced
2011 campaign. Indeed 2012 will be marked by the unusual (but welcome) event of
seeing two Super Seconds, Pichon Lalande and Montrose, release below the Flying
Fifths, Lynch Bages and Pontet Canet (€57.6 per bottle ex-negociant compared to
€60 per bottle ex-negociant). Expectations were that Seconds Ducru Beaucaillou
and Cos D’Estournel would make a similarly strong effort – but this proved not
to be the case, with the former releasing today at €69.6 and the latter at €89.
Neither has met demand. As shown in the chart below, for Cos
D’Estournel there are simply too many cheaper back vintages for collectors to
choose from.
