The Market

2009 drc corton…

By billn on December 03, 2008 #the market

It sounds like an April fool, but from Bourgogne Aujourd’hui:

Le domaine de la Romanée-Conti à Corton !

La plus célèbre des références bourguignonnes, le domaine de la Romanée-Conti exploitera à partir du millésime 2009 trois grands crus de l’appellation corton. Les vignes sont situées sur les climats Bressandes (1,20 ha), Clos du Roi (0,57 hectares) et Renardes (0,51 ha) et s’ajoutent aux 27 hectares déjà exploités par le domaine (presqu’exclusivement des grands crus). Les premiers vins seront commercialisés en 2012 soit trois ans après la récolte comme il est d’usage pour les autres vins du domaine. L’exploitation de ces vignes a été confiée en fermage par le domaine Prince Florent de Merode (Ladoix-Serrigny) et fait suite à des décès successifs au sein de la famille propriétaire.

It just doesn’t sound right; Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – Côte de Beaune, but it will be a good test of many people’s assertion that none of Corton should be classed as grand cru…

What do we think – higher or lower price than a bottle of Échézeaux?

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good-bye white burgundy & drc ‘control-freaks’…

By billn on December 02, 2008 #other sites#the market

romanee conti montrachet

Australian white burgundy that is…

Now what about Domaine de la Romanée-Conti? You don’t see too much critique of the domaine as people are probably too worried that they might ‘lose’ their allocations of wine, but I think I will (eventually) raise a valid point here.
I took delivery of a modest 4 bottles of DRC 05 last week. I’m not sure why I decidied to open the package, maybe it was just to see if the labels were solid gold to reflect market pricing – the answer was yes, and no, one of the bottles was indeed gold – a gold-topped bottle of Montrachet, the thing is I didn’t order one…

The Montrachet was mistakenly in the package in place of a more modest bottle of Echézeaux. Now it was time to test the system! I could have said nothing, but that’s not my style, so I sent a mail saying that my Echézeaux was missing, but as they now (theoretically) note the bottle number at the side of the customer name (more on this later), my bottle should still be in their store – I didn’t mention the ‘gold-top’ in my cellar. It took a couple of days, but the merchant came back and said, “We have checked everything and found out, that you got one bottle of Montrachet (bottle Nr. 1044) instead of the Echézeaux”. They went on to say that if I sent back ‘my’ ‘gold-top’ I could have my Echézeaux!

I have no problem with the above, it’s how it should have been, but I find it interesting that the domaine’s ‘big brother’ approach to sales seems (at least in part!) to work – i.e. the referencing of bottles to their purchaser. The domaine’s clear intention is to try and restrict resale to get the bottles into the hands of drinkers rather than traders i.e. by threatening (maybe ‘implying’ is a better choice of word) not to sell again to people who are found to offload their wines for profit within weeks of purchase. I personally feel – to some extent – that this is a good thing, but I also see a sense of irony here: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has a pricing level based significantly on the history of tradeability for the wines. If the wines were not so tradeable, then the domaine’s pricing might be only 30-40% of current pricing so ultimately they would be less financially successful…

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offer of the day…

By billn on December 01, 2008 #the market

DOMAINE LEFLAIVE 2007 – Puligny-Montrachet

PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 75cl 69.50 Swiss francs
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Clavoillons 75cl 98.00
MEURSAULT Sous le Dos d’Âne 75cl 99.50
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Folatières 75cl 139.00
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Combettes 75cl 139.00
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Pucelles 75cl 169.00
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Pucelles 150cl 343.00
BIENVENUES BATARD MONTRACHET 75cl 289.00
BATARD MONTRACHET 75cl 299.00
CHEVALIER-MONTRACHET 75cl 389.00

I’m looking hard to see value. Nope, didn’t find any…

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offer of the day – Jacques Prieur 2007

By billn on November 25, 2008 #the market

DOMAINE JACQUES PRIEUR – Millésime 2007

Vins blancs
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Combettes 75cl 78.00 Swiss francs
MEURSAULT Perrières 75cl 109.00
CORTON CHARLEMAGNE 75cl 128.00
CHEVALIER-MONTRACHET 75cl 219.00
MONTRACHET 75cl 399.00

Vins rouges
VOLNAY Champans 75cl 66.00
VOLNAY Clos des Santenots 75cl 69.50
CORTON BRESANDES 75cl 109.00
CLOS DE VOUGEOT 75cl 109.00
CHAMBERTIN 75cl 159.00
ECHEZEAUX 75cl 169.00
MUSIGNY 75cl 218.00

Probably just about in-line with (pre-hype) 2005 and 2006. That’s the going rate for Montrachet, the Musigny shows comparitive value…

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catching up…

By billn on November 24, 2008 #other sites#the market

berry bros and rudd 1909 price-listRather than (as intended) smoking my keyboard with prose for next weekend’s scheduled Autumn issue of the Burgundy Report, I seem to have spent a whole day trying to catch up on what’s gone on over the last 3 weeks. First I particularly like the post on the Berry Bros weblog that commemorates their 1909 price-list whilst launching the 2009 version.

I didn’t check the 2009 numbers, but I assume they’re higher! Interesting that (below) Romanée-Conti is not so expensive relative to the other (latent) grand crus – I wonder if they still have some of that Chambertain, Clos St.Jacques in the cellar – it’s not impossible – as it sounds rather interesting…

berry bros and rudd 1909 burgundy pricelist
berry bros and rudd 1909 burgundy pricelist

So what else have I spotted(?) Well there’s a nice piece on the 2008 vintage from David Clark here. Note that his perspective is one of a ‘central Côte de Nuits’ producer so as valuable a data-point as it is, it’s only a small part of the 2008 story – I’ll expand next weekend in the new issue.

So what else do we have? Well, amongst others, I’m sure you will need a wine investment strategy! – though I’m not sure it’s appropriate for the scented ‘Bitch Goddess Of Grapes‘, despite good performance in New Zealand, particularly as fine wine prices hit new lows – perhaps the Leroy ‘brand‘ is an antidote(?) but I doubt it given the offer on 1993 Leroys that hit my inbox last week! Clearly wine karma needs improving for most if not all people!

alberic bichotWhile I was away there was the Hospices de Beaune auction. That was bad timing on my part as I was in possession of two lovely invitations to visit and taste old wines – you can’t win them all I suppose. Anthony Hanson’s description of the wines as coming from a ‘Burgundy lover’s vintage’ – well he would wouldn’t he(?) – didn’t help very much, despite them being very pretty wines, but Maison Albert Bichot certainly put their money where their mouth is, and didn’t Albéric look dapper!

It was nice to see someone talking about real Beaujolais whilst I was away – not just once, but twice – so far I’ve avoided the marketing efforts of the ‘nouveau-ers’. Even more surprising is the public discovery of two new regions in burgundy – the Mâconnais and Chalonaise!

I think that’s enough tenuous linking for 1 day…

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offer of the day

By billn on October 15, 2008 #the market

Domaine d´Eugénie

Vosne Romanee 2006 75cl 89.50 SFr
Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Aux Brulées 2006 75cl 155.00

Clos de Vougeot 2006 75cl 295.00
Echezeaux 2006 75cl 295.00
Grands Echezeaux 2006 75cl 295.00

It’s confirmed that the world has indeed gone mad, I’m only surprised in 2 areas; 1) that the prices are lower than the Comte Georges de Vogüé wines, and 2) that the Grands Echezeaux is not showing a premium over the Echezeaux – maybe the quality differential is missing? I have not ordered any for ‘testing’.

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offer off the day

By billn on October 14, 2008 #the market

Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüe

CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY 2006 75cl 99.50 SFr
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY 1er cru 2006 75cl 189.00
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY Les Amoureuses 2006 75cl 398.00

BONNES-MARES 2005 75cl 865.00
BONNES-MARES 2006 75cl 398.00

One hundred francs for the villages – the world has gone mad…

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offer of the day

By billn on October 03, 2008 #the market

CHABLIS DOMAINE WILLIAM FEVRE 2007

PREMIERS CRUS – DOMAINE
CHABLIS Montée de Tonnerre 75cl 39.50 SFr
CHABLIS Fourchaume 75cl 39.50
CHABLIS Fourchaume Vignoble Vaulorent 75cl 55.00

GRANDS CRUS – DOMAINE
CHABLIS Valmur 75cl 79.00
CHABLIS Bougros Côtes de Bouquerots 75cl 79.00
CHABLIS Les Preuses 75cl 79.00
CHABLIS Les Clos 75cl 89.50

Interesting not only that the top wines are about 80% more expensive than the 2002 vintage, but also that the Le Clos is now being described as ‘rare’. Do they mean undercooked? – I have the feeling you can find it anywhere, perhaps allocations are down…

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offer of the day – louis jadot 2006

By billn on October 01, 2008 #the market

DOMAINE LOUIS JADOT – millésime 2006

VINS BLANCS
PERNAND VERGELESSES Clos Croix de Pierre 75cl 36.00 SFr
CORTON CHARLEMAGNE 75cl 138.00
CHEVALIER-MONTRACHET Les Demoiselles 75cl 345.00

VINS ROUGES
GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN Les Cazetiers 75cl 69.50
GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN Le Clos St-Jacques 75cl 119.00
NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES Aux Boudots 75cl 79.50
VOSNE-ROMANEE Les Beaux-Monts 75cl 89.50
VOSNE-ROMANEE Les Petits Monts 75cl 95.00
VOSNE-ROMANEE Les Suchots 75cl 95.00
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY Les Fuées 75cl 75.00
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY Les Baudes 75cl 79.50
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY Les Amoureuses 75cl 199.50
CLOS DE VOUGEOT 75cl 119.50
ECHEZEAUX 75cl 148.00
CLOS DE LA ROCHE 75cl 125.00
CLOS SAINT DENIS 75cl 178.00
CHAMBERTIN Clos de Bèze 75cl 246.00
BONNES-MARES 75cl 198.00

That’s the first time I ever saw an offer for the Demoiselles, I shan’t be biting though.  Overall I find the prices comme-ci comme-ça, if not completely outrageous, but they are not where I need to energise me to use my plastic:  I still have this ‘old-fashioned’ notion that good 1ers should cost 40-60 SFr, and decent GC’s more like 70-120 SFr, hence, I’ll keep buying older vintages where still available, like here, or here!

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