July Newsletter
July 20th 2010, by abrewitt
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The World Cup: Sacre Bleu
June 30th 2010, by Gavin
At least England lasted longer than France, finalists four years ago.
The locals have hardly mentioned Les Bleus, and the headlines across Europe have been ferocious at their teams’ poor showings. Meanwhile, our seasonal workers are happy with their cut-price Rooney shirts: most of them are Morrocan so anything to have a dig at Algeria, France or, to a lesser extent, England.
As well as some of the more hilarious headlines, here are a couple of our favourite views on the French catastrophe that have been doing the rounds. First, a brilliant Bayeux Tapestry-inspired cartoon (click on the image to enlarge) from Dotmund and secondly, this short of video of why Henry wasn’t on top form.
Best Buys from Bordeaux 2009
June 28th 2010, by Gavin
All over now bar the shouting.
Here, in my humble opinion, are the Best Buys - at the opening prices - of Bordeaux 2009, broken down as follows:
10 Expensive wines - but sound investments.
£400 to £1000 - 17 Fabulous quality, blue chip names.
£200 - £300 - This is where the values of 2009 lie: 20 cracking wines.
Under £200 - 12 lovely wines from the Left Bank.
Bordeaux 2009 v 2008 v 2005: Comparing Points and Prices
June 28th 2010, by Gavin
For those who like lists: with the massive ‘en primeur’ price increases from 30 of the famous Bordeaux Châteaux last week - 196% up on average on 2008 - I thought it would be useful to compare points and prices of the top 2009s with both the 2008s and the last great vintage, 2005.
The table below shows my scores (GQ) and Robert Parker’s (RP) for the 2009s and 2008s from barrel, and the price in British pounds En Primeur (EP) from UK merchants. On the right hand side, I tasted all the top 2005s in bottle for Wine & Spirit magazine for the Dec 2007 issue, five months before Robert Parker released his final scores. Buyers are dipping back into the market for the 2005s and 2008s against the more expensive 2009s: there’s a lot of sense in that.
2008 was a very good vintage, even if, in many people’s view, Robert Parker was a little generous with some of his scores. It makes for some bizarre comparisons: Ducru Beaucaillou 2008 was rated 96-98 and the 2009 96-98+, yet the the latter is three times the price of the ‘08. I’ll be re-tasting the 2008s from bottle in the autumn - follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GavinQuinney for updates.
Meanwhile, the better deals on 2009s were to be found on wines released earlier in the campaign, so it’s worth searching them out as many are still available. See also my separate post to follow for my ‘Best Buys of Bordeaux 2009′ and my summary of tweets throughout the campaign.
Clowns to the Left of me, Jokers to the Right
June 25th 2010, by Gavin
“The Bordeaux circus is over until next year but it is already clear from British drinkers’ inquiries that there are as many clowns in the audience as there are on stage. Make certain you are not one of them.”
This stern warning came from Jane MacQuitty in The Times on May 5th, 2001, following the En Primeur tastings of the much-hyped 2000 vintage. Jane might have been a little wide of the mark in terms of investment advice back then, but her words ring true for many of the top end 2009s released this week.
Don’t get me wrong - there are some fantastic wines in 2009. It’s just that the market for them has gone bonkers and I believe that this time it’s different. I was a big fan of buying the 2000s and the 2005s En Primeur, despite warnings from many observers at the time that prices were too high: writing up the ‘05 Primeurs for Wine and Spirit magazine, I urged readers to buy the wines, and re-stated that in December 2007 after I’d tried them all in bottle.
There have been some terrific 2009 values, and I’ll highlight those shortly. However, the prices for many of the ’second’ tier of top 2009s from Bordeaux, released this week, simply beggar belief (see below). According to Liv-ex, prices announced in the final week are up nearly 200% over 2008 and 57% over 2005 - and much more than this above ‘05 in £ terms. Even more astonishing is that many are selling out, apparently. I have been receiving emails, asking advice on ’should I buy this, should I buy that, what should I buy?’ which I’m only too happy to answer. I usually refer to my up-to-date list of 2005s v 2009s.
Bordeaux 2009: “Deal or No Deal?” A Flock of Tweets
June 24th 2010, by Gavin
Here are my Tweets on the prices of the main 2009s to date, with the most recent ones first. To be kept up to date, follow me on Twitter.
I’m also keeping my handy 2009 v 2005 Buyer’s Guide up to date as prices are released.
