The 2008 and 2006 vintages of Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne cuvée are the best rated vintages below £2,000 a case, but is the market sleeping on the 2007?
- The 2002-2008 vintages of Comtes are all up by a minimum of 30% over the last year.
- The 2008 and 2006 vintages are the best rated with a current Market Price below £2,000.
- Does the 2007 offer better value and promise than is currently realised?
*made using the Liv-ex charting tool.
Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne cuvée has become an extremely popular label in the secondary fine wine market.
Delivering compelling value allied with consistently high scores, Comtes demonstrates many of the virtues that have driven Champagne’s successful performance in recent years.
This in turn has created ready demand for the wine and increasingly positive price performance. With the exception of the newly-released 2011, the overall direction of prices for Comtes is upwards.
The chart above shows the price performance of the most recent six vintages (excluding the newly-released 2011); 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 which have all seen price increases of at least 30% over the year-to-date. The 2004 and 2006 vintages have risen the most, both up 53%.
Vintages available below £2,000 a case
The table above shows the current Market Prices and Wine Advocate scores for the latest Taittinger Comtes de Champagne vintages.
At present, vintages of Comtes prior to 2002 are all over £2,000 a case regardless of score. The 98-point 2002 is the most expensive of the last 10 vintages, with a Market Price of £2,730 (12×75).
It would appear that age and availability begin to supersede ratings to an extent after enough time passes. Thus, the 96-point 2004 has a Market Price of £1,950 while the 98-point 2008 is £1,787.
The 2008 and 2006 vintages, rated 98-points and 96-points respectively by The Wine Advocate, also offer potential value at their current level.
The 2008 is almost £1,000 cheaper than its fellow 98-point 2002, while the 2006 is £500 less than the 96-point 2004.
Another vintage not to be overlooked is the 2007. Rated 95 (the same as the 1999), it has a Market Price of £1,170 at present, only just above the 92-point 2005.
Perhaps not a vintage with the same credentials as the ’08 or ’06. However, William Kelley did describe the 2007 as, ‘a very classically balanced middleweight Comtes that has a long future ahead of it’.
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Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 530+ merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £80m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines. Independent data, direct from the market.
