- Burgundy’s weekly trade share at a recent high
- Liv-ex 2018 En Primeur survey results
- Bordeaux 2018 critic scores
- This week’s Bordeaux 2018 releases
- Join our Wine Matcher webinar
Trade by both value and volume remained stable this week. The Liv-ex 50, the index that tracks the First Growths, was flat on last week’s close. Bordeaux’s share by value rose from 52.6% to 58.4%.
Burgundy hit a recent high this week – the region’s share by value climbed to 29.7%. It last reached similar levels in January, when the Burgundy 2017 En Primeur campaign was in full swing.
While Champagne (2.9%) and the USA (1.7%) also rose slightly, Italy, the Rhone and the ‘others’ category dipped on last week.
The most active wines this week came from Burgundy and Bordeaux. DRC Assortment 2009 led trade by value, with a last trade at £40,280 per 12×75. Margaux 2005 (RP 98+) followed; it last traded at £5,945 per 12×75, up 32% on its release price but down 33% on its peak trade price of £8,900 in 2008.
Pichon Lalande 2016 also proved popular, trading at £1,435, up a mere 1% on its opening price in 2017 (£1,420 per 12×75). The wine boasts 97 points from Neal Martin, who called it “a benchmark for the estate”.
Bordeaux 2018
Lafite Rothschild – wine of the vintage
The results from the Liv-ex 2018 En Primeur survey are now in: the international wine trade named Lafite Rothschild wine of the 2018 Bordeaux vintage. Branaire Ducru topped the value for money category, while the vintage was scored 95.5 points overall, slightly lower than the 2016 (95.9). Find out more here.
Critic scores
More Bordeaux 2018 critic scores were released this week, including those from Jeff Leve, Rod Smith MW, Lisa Perotti-Brown MW and Chris Kissack.
While, generally, critics have praised the quality, many of them have agreed on the inconsistency of the vintage. Leve argued that there are “hits and misses with 2018 Bordeaux”, Perrotti-Brown called it a “vintage of extremes”, and Smith summarised: “2018 is undoubtedly an exceptional vintage […] but not necessarily for entirely the right reasons”.
Petits Chateaux releases
The week saw a number of Petits Chateaux and Sauternes releases. The table above shows the ex-negociant price (in euros) per bottle and the merchant price (in pounds) per case of each wine, as well as the % price change on the 2016 and 2017 releases.
According to the results of our En Primeur survey, merchants expect this year’s wines to be released 15.61% higher than the 2017s but 4.85% lower than the 2016s.
The indication at this early stage of the campaign, however, is that 2018 ex-negociant releases are on average 3% higher on the 2016 and 8% higher than the 2017. This might pose some challenges to the market.
Wine Matcher
Next week, we’re hosting a free webinar in English and French, which will give a brief overview of Wine Matcher’s key time-saving features. Find out more here.
You can also see how Vintage Capital have already made use of the tool to save time searching through lists.
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