Top Bordeaux: Investment of the Decade
December 10th 2009, by Gavin
Here’s a sobering thought at this time of year, especially if you’ve been drinking your stock of old Lafite. A report in the Guardian, entitled ‘How alternative investments have fared since 2000′, showed that the top wines from Bordeaux have been the best investment since 2000, ‘earning returns that far outstripped equities, gold and property.’
In short, the ‘Big Eight’ – Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton, and Haut-Brion (the five First Growths from the Left Bank) along with Pétrus from Pomerol, and Cheval Blanc and Ausone from St-Emilion (all Right Bank), have all proved to be solid performers.
Bordeaux 2009: ‘Exceptional’
October 14th 2009, by Gavin
This post was also written for the Liv-Ex blog. The London International Vintners Exchange is the leading exchange for fine wine, and their site is a superb resource for knowing the value of top Bordeaux. They kindly asked me for ‘An Insider’s View‘ on 2009.
“Exceptional”. That’s the refrain at the leading châteaux in Bordeaux in 2009. Since mid-June, it has been warm, dry and sunny, and the glorious weather in the last ten days of September and the first week of October has allowed the top estates – on both Banks – to pick their Merlot and Cabernets in perfect condition.
2008 En Primeur: Surprise, Surprise
April 4th 2009, by Gavin
We’ve just had the week of trade tastings in Bordeaux, when the world of fine wine annually descends on the region to taste the wines from the previous vintage. A few surprises too: many 2008s are far better than most outsiders would have thought, after gloomy reports of a damp summer.
The real surprise though is that there seems to be a genuine desire to launch a quick ‘en primeur’ campaign, with the possibility of the First Growths – Latour, Lafite, Margaux (above), Mouton Rothschild and Haut-Brion – coming out with an opening offer in the next couple of weeks, before most of the lower ranks. And that would be big news here as it would turn the normal routine on its head.
Saint-Emilion Classification: a French Farce
July 6th 2008, by Gavin
The long running saga concerning the re-classication of the top estates of St-Emilion took another twist this week when a court in Bordeaux ruled against the recently revised rankings. The whole affair has been widely reported, as in The Daily Telegraph, and by Sophie Kevany on decanter.com. Wikipedia’s current entry on this debacle is now right up-to-date and includes the useful, but now suspended, 2006 classification.