Tawny Ports are normally a blend of an average age (i.e. 10 Year Old, 20 Year Old, etc) so it is rare to see a single vintage tawny and even rarer to see one which has been aged for 50 years before bottling.
As a sneaky peak into our cellars, we can offer these lovely and mature Bordeaux from vintages 1989-2005.
Having been in the wine business for the last 14-years, we have used our expertise in sourcing the finest and rarest wines to obtain some of the finest Whiskies on the market!
The excellent Krug Grand Cuvee 163 Edition is really quite something, 95points from Antonio Galloni and now no longer produced. The good news is we still have a small number of cases available of this exquisite Champagne!
I attended a very exciting tasting and dinner last week at Zucca restaurant on Bermondsey Street. The theme was comparing 2009 and 2010 white and red Burgundy, which is particularly interesting as the two vintages have produced many wines which are lauded by just about everyone, though for very different reasons. Ripeness and generosity have always been the hallmarks of the 2009 vintage while purity and complexity have been those of the 2010 vintage. However, these are generalities and it was great to be able to taste 3 pairs of white Burgundies and 6 pairs of red Burgundies to gain a better understanding of the two vintages.
A group of wine trade colleagues and customers convened for a horizontal Burgundy tasting last week at Medlar Restaurant. Following the 2011 White Burgundies (please see the previous blog post), we turned our attention to the 2007 vintage for Red Burgundy.
A group of wine trade colleagues and customers convened once again for a horizontal Burgundy tasting last week at Medlar Restaurant. It was the turn of the 2011 vintage for White Burgundy and it threw up some interesting conclusions.
We had the pleasure of making our annual trip to Bordeaux to try the 2014s last week and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of many of the red wines. In our view, it is a very good vintage, certainly the best since 2010, and if priced correctly could be a vintage to buy now for future drinking.
I have recently returned from a trip to La Rioja Alta which was enlightening, entertaining and most of all, incredibly interesting. I had never been to Rioja before
I met up with a few friends in the wine trade last night to watch the England-Uruguay match and to drink a few good bottles of wine.
The 2004 vintage in Burgundy is a tale of two colours… Since they were first released, the reds have been largely derided and described mainly as light to medium-bodied with high acidity and lacking the fruit found in more generous vintages (and in the worst cases, having green, stalky flavours which totally overpower the fruit). The whites, however, were very much lauded and were described as being classic and pure with firm acidities and direct, mineral palates.
This is officially my first blog post…. I have never been much of a blogger as I come from the generation that narrowly missed the internet revolution. However, I thought I would finally put pen to paper (or keyboard to internet…) in the hope that I will be able to add some insight into wines and the wine trade and hopefully provide some interesting and entertaining stories along the way.
It was no pretty picture that had been painted before we headed out to Bordeaux to try the much maligned 2013 vintage earlier this week. The press have not been scared to jump on the usual band-wagon before any wine had even been tasted, reporting that 2013 was a tricky growing season for Bordeaux. A fact that, rather unusually, the majority of the Chateaux owners have not been afraid to admit to also.
An odd start to the 2013 En Primeur releases from Bordeaux, with one of their stars releasing well ahead of the rest.
Pricing in Bordeaux is often one of the most delicate of subjects. Especially now more than ever before, as prices continue to plummet, burning those that sought to invest in the ‘life-changing’ vintages of 2009 & 2010.
The Liv-Ex Fine Wine 50 Index showing the last 6 months
During December, Jancis Robinson is writing about her top tips for Christmas drinking. It just so happens that one of our favourite fizzes made it on to her list over the weekend – ‘Le Moulin,’ Blanquette de Limoux by Domaine J Laurens.
With a recent history of being able to start a market rally with their wine label releases, especially after the Chateau announced Chinaman Xu Lei would design their 2008 label, today’s news of Mouton Rothschild’s ‘art-work’ for the 2011 vintage has fallen somewhat short in terms of excitement generated.
Your local wine merchant, Ditton Wine Traders, would like to invite you to their Christmas Wine tasting in Surbiton!
Friday 29th November, 6.30 – 8.30pm
Elizabethan Room, Glenmore House, The Crescent, Surbiton KT6 4BN
Join us for the Autumnal Ditton Wine tasting!
Thursday 3rd October – 18:45 to 20:45
If you are looking for well priced, top notch Burgundy, this is worth your attention!
Domaine Janotsbos, as the few of you that attended our tasting recently will be aware, are a new-comer to the UK scene, and an exclusive to Ditton Wine Traders. Based in Meursault, wine-making team of two, Thierry Janots (part time wine-maker at Comtes Lafon) and Richard Bos have been producing exceptionally high quality wines since 2005, and we are delighted to be able to offer the exceptional 2010's.
Ronan Laborde does not look like the typical Pomerol Château owner. In fact, Ronan does not behave like the stereo-typical Chateau owner either. As one of the youngest in the business, his approaches to wine-making at Chateau Clinet – and indeed to marketing – are very refreshing.
In a complete reversal on the late and sporadic releases of last year, it looks as though the Chateaux of Bordeaux won’t even allow the trade back to their desks before releasing their prices in this year’s campaign. Early reports claim that the campaign should all be over by Vinexpo, which runs 16th to 20th June, much earlier than last year’s finish in July.
But I will anyway.
The dip in the market has been deeper (25% or so on average) and longer than most expected, but fine wine prices have stopped falling and indeed are moving up again.
Prices as measured daily by the Liv-ex 50 have been steadily increasing since December last year:
This has resulted in the Liv-ex 100 – the most widely quoted benchmark of fine wine prices – also changing direction:
So, if the conspiracy theorists out there are correct, we might not even make it to Christmas this year, with the world due to end in just a few days time…
Reflecting on this, we wondered how the wine trade would fare without its customers, should there indeed be none remaining by January.
Having endured just about the worst en primeur campaign ever seen, the Bordelais would probably notice little change. After all, there were very few buyers for the 2011’s, so a dozen fewer probably wouldn’t make a huge difference…
Discussing recently with friends the “supermarket bargains” that can be had – things such as the Cape Peak Heritage Chardonnay from Tesco, which one could pick up for a nifty £8.99 a bottle, but when on deal, you’d only have to pay another £1.01 for another 2 bottles of the stuff – it got us thinking about wines which actually do offer genuine value for money, wines which really do punch above the price tag…
The latest changes in the St Emilion Classification show that hard work really does pay off. Congratulations to both Chateau Pavie, and Chateau Angelus on their promotions, which put them both in the same league as two of the most respected Chateaux in the world. This achievement is certainly well deserved in our opinion, and is recognition of all of the hard work that both have put in.
Following recent speculation that the market has either hit the bottom, or is indeed very close to the bottom, we decided to take a look further into this.
Lots of charts, graphs, data etc – and if you are interested to find out why now is the time to buy, and exactly what you should be buying, please read on, because the results below are very positive.
Take a bold Aussie red – in this case d’Arenberg’s ‘The Footbolt Shiraz 2006’ – expose it to just two of our myriad well-known wine critics, along with a #7wordwinereview, and this is what you get:
Lastly, the 2006 The Footbolt Shiraz (which contains a bit of Grenache) offers fragrant aromas of wood smoke, game, and blueberry. Layered and balanced, it will evolve for several years and drink well through 2017.
90+ Points, Jay Miller, eRobertParker.com
The last 12 months have been challenging for the fine wine market. The fall in prices that started in July 2011 has continued after a brief despite at the beginning of the year. This has resulted in the Liv-ex 100 falling 27% in 1 year time.
One word to describe the Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur campaign: shambolic.
Some more words: gross mismanagement. Short sighted. No vision or direction. No timing. No respect whatsoever for the merchants and more importantly, the consumer. An absolute shambles.
Who’s to blame? The Chateaux for not listening? The courtiers (the guys who are the go between Chateaux and French Negociants) for not being able to make a market, which is what they are supposed to do and are handsomely paid for?
Every year, merchants and buyers alike get excited about the prospect of En Primeur, even in lesser vintages – for merchants, an opportunity to go and try the new wines that the Chateaux have spent the past year working hard on producing, chatting to the owners about the vintage; its difficulties and challenges, and then trying to gain an understanding of it all.
Chteau Latour, the illustrious Bordeaux 1st Growth, has announced that 2011 will be the last vintage to be released En Primeur.
This is big news, as for the first time since the 1960’s, a First Growth Chateau breaks with the unique and over time very successful way that Bordeaux sells its newest wines.
Why would Latour do this? What are the reasons behind this decision? What are the implications? Here are our thoughts.
"The cost of a premier grand cru like Chateau Lafite-Rothschild '82 is nearly $58/ bottle. The public simply won't pay this. I think that a crash is inevitable". Steven Spurrier, Time Magazine, 1985
The Lafite 1982 now sells at around £40,000/ case.
After a short but very informative and useful trip, here are some of our observations regarding the new vintage and upcoming En Primeur campaign.
The Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur campaign will start shortly. Next week, the trade will go and taste the wines but this week, several wine critics have already done so. Robert Parker, who said on Twitter that he had no interest in the 2011 vintage before going out to Bordeaux, has also tasted the new vintage.
Denis Dubourdieu is a professor at the University of Bordeaux and a top oenologist. He is also a consultant, scientist, owner and wine maker of Doisy Daene and Clos Floridene. He is very well positioned to comment on the quality of the 2011 Bordeaux vintage, or at least on the prevailing climatic conditions that largely dictate what the individual winemakers at the various Chateaux can work with.
Making fine wine even more accessible – meet Ben Grosvenor.
From the very early days, Ditton Wine Traders have always had a very clear purpose: to offer the best wines at the lowest prices. It’s a way of thinking. It’s in our genes. We thoroughly believe that offering amazing wines at very hard to beat prices is the best way to make our customers happy. Hence our motto: “making fine wine accessible”.
They were expected to be high, but the 2009 scores released on March 1 by Robert Parker have exceeded the highest expectations.
"Not a myth but mythical" is Parker's subtitle for his Bordeaux 2009 review. Indeed. He goes on to say "In short, 2009 is the greatest vintage I have tasted in Bordeaux since 1982". He backs this up by awarding no less than 18 Bordeaux reds, and 1 white, the perfect score of 100 points.
After 6 months of continuous falls in price, the market now seems to have turned a corner. The Liv-ex 50 has stopped its decline and is indeed edging back up.
On a longer and more important timescale, this is reflected in the Liv-ex 100 as well:
As you will know from our previous blogposts, the EU and India have been trying to reach consensus on signing a Free Trade Agreement, which could have a significant impact on the (fine) wine industry. Hopes were high that, after 4 years of negotiating, an agreement would be signed last week.
Can we expect a boom in Indian fine wine imports?
It seems to be fashionable these days to engage in a bit of “Bordeaux Bashing”. “Bordeaux would be out of fashion. Grossly overpriced. The bubble has burst. Nobody wants overpriced Bordeaux. Burgundy, even Rhone and Italy is what people want. Sell sell sell”.
The Financial Times have today published an article on market developments for Fine Wine in India. Ditton Wine Traders, and James Swann in particular, have done extensive research on this, which has been used by the FT for this article.
December was a tough month for the fine wine trade. Signs were starting to point in the right direction and most economists and financial analysts became more optimistic on the Euro surviving.
In one of our previous articles, “Wine investment, what Warren Buffett would do”, we announced we would elaborate on the prevailing uncertainty in the fine wine market and shed some light on short term demand.
In this latest piece we look at the emergence of new actors in fine wine markets, by way of wine funds and the increased prominence of fine wine auctions.
In a series of questions and answers Ella Lister, the Auctions and Secondary Market Correspondent for the World of Fine Wine Magazine (WFW) provides critical insight.
Since the Summer, fine wine prices have moved south. So have all bond and equity markets. Systemic risk caused by European debt issues is the main reason. Which in turn affects global growth prospects. Banks are forced to de-leverage, making it more difficult for companies and indeed countries to access credit. Credit rating agencies sound warnings left right and centre, with Standard & Poor’s in their latest move warning that it might downgrade the credit rating of no less than 15 European countries.
WSTA has published a "wine investment guide". It is "published and maintained by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association. Its contents were drafted in consultation with a number of reputable UK wine merchants, retailers, brokers and law enforcement agencies. It is aimed at consumers who are considering investing in fine wines.
As you will likely be aware of, prices of fine wine, as measured by the widely adopted Liv-ex 100, have fallen 20% over the last 3 months and the drop has not yet stopped. You might therefore think, why should I invest in a market that’s going down?
One swallow doesn’t make a summer but there are a few signs that Bordeaux prices might soon turn around:
There's a new wine blog. And this one is different.
There’s always loads of noise and comments on blogs, websites and Twitter when Fine Wine prices are going up, often amounting to plugging one’s own business. As of the last month or 2 though, I have not seen many comments on the current state of affairs in the fine wine market, whilst there’s more need for that than ever. So we thought to have a stab at explaining the market and provide readers with some transparant, meaningful information.
In a vertical tasting of Lynch Bages vintages spanning 1981 to 2010, Robert Parker – the wine trade’s most influential critic – has conducted an extensive review of one of Bordeaux’s most enduring chateaux, re-rating the wines accordingly.
Now that what seems to have been a very long summer break is over, it’s time to catch up.
Aussino clarifies Bordeaux position.
We found this interesting article on Wine Spectator: "Did China really save Bordeaux?" It gives some further insight into the success or lack thereof of the 2010 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign, and the role of Chinese /HK buyers:
Decanter magazine has published an article examining the decision by Aussino Cellars, a leading retailer in mainland China that maintains 200 wine stores in 100 cities, to abruptly cancel its annual meeting with the Union de Grands Crus while stating that it intends to stop buying Left Bank and instead will inv
I find it slightly bizarre that the whole wine trade is occupied with Bordeaux En Primeur during nearly 3 months. The tastings were done in April and the last of the reviews (Parker) were released at the end of April. Yet, a month and a half later, we’re all still waiting for the campaign to get serious. Frustration in the trade mounts and customer interest is waning.
Eyebrows rose yet again at further new records set for fine wine prices of Bordeaux first growths led by the Hong Kong offices of the major fine wine auction houses.
The quality of Bordeaux 2010, across the region, is very high. A raft of lesser known Cru Bourgeois and Petit Chateaux have produced beautiful wines, at accessible prices. Wines that have something to say about the place in which they are grown. As money chases the big guns, such chateaux have been widely hailed as offering some of the best value to be found in the fine wine market.
Robert Parker has released his in-bottle scores for 2008, the vintage that he previoulsy loved but that other critics weren’t as positive about. The result is quite extraordinary: the vintage as a whole is downgraded by a massive 1.18 point.
The Bordeaux 2010 En Primeur campaign has finally started. The tastings are done and reviews have been coming out thick and fast. The first wines have been released and once Robert Parker will release his scores (expected on the 3rd of May), we will see Chateaux step up the pace of releases.
Bordeaux 2010, as with Bordeaux 2009 before it, is a vintage born out of extremity. In opposition to the no less extreme but regular cycle of 2009, 2010 is the fruit of exceptional meteorological conditions that tested the vine to its limits. 2010 is an extreme vintage which, in this instance, went the right way.
The Drinks Business, one of the British trade’s leading providers of news and reports, has published an article on its feed ‘Fine Wine on Thursday’. Quote:
Pontet Canet declared best value Bordeaux in retrospective tasting
The record-priced Bordeaux 2009 vintage currently trades at -2% off its London release price and so far has failed to produce growth in accordance to expectations. We look into alternative fine wine investment strategies that – albeit with hindsight – would have netted a better return.
Is buying en primeur actually a good deal? It certainly can be, but much depends on the vintage, your allocations and on available alternative wine investment strategies.
Is not the time-honoured investment advice to buy low and sell high?
A fresh new study by 3 London Business School (LBS) economists is the latest challenge, in a series of long-running research going back as far as the 1980s, to the efficient market hypothesis.
Decanter published below article on their website today. From our own sales, we can confirm there is clearly a widening demand for Bordeaux.
The Wall street Journal posted this article on their website today:
Partly. Subscribers to erobertparker.com will have received this message from Robert Parker in their inbox this weekend:
Dear eRobertParker.com Subscriber:
A recent IMF working paper has generated wide-ranging debate on wine investment , both from within the trade and, interestingly, a number of opin
eries of successful high-profile auctions have taken place in Hong Kong, of which three within the first month of the year. Further proof of HK’s prominent position in the Bordeaux-dominated fine and rare wines market. Two of these auctions were particularly high profile with a partial sell-off of the cellar of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, followed by a consignment from Bordeaux Winebank, a fund. Acker, Merrall and Condit, meanwhile, followed-up with a sale of premium Bordeaux and Burgundy.
The latest monthly bulletin from Liv-ex, shows the effects of currency exchange on the strong price appreciation among the London trade, suggesting there may yet be some way to go amid increasing concerns about a fine wine bubble. Supporting this interpretation are the results of their benchmark Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index, which the exchange has converted into other major intern
And not Lafite. For a change, all the buzz is about all First Growths but Lafite.
The Wall Street Journal posted this article today:(quote)
There isn’t much that’s finer than wine these days, especially as an investment.
On the last day of 2010, Liv-ex published the results of the Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index. This indicator tracks the performance of 10 vintages of the 5 Bordeaux First Growths (Lafite, Latour, Mouton, Margaux and Haut Brion). For the first time in its history, it broke the 400 barrier, having been based at 100 in January 2004.
John Varley, the boss of Barclay’s Bank, has indicated that the availability of credit has to shrink. In an interview with the BBC, he says: "The amount of credit available is shrinking, it absolutely is, and that is a painful process, it’s a process through which the world absolutely has to go".
The pressure mounts. The Bordeaux Chateaux owners and Negociants are always asked to keep their En Primeur prices down, particularly by the UK trade, so nothing new there. However, for the 2008 campaign, there are many more voices that advocate this point of view.
Recently I was asked if Ditton Wine Traders "do" wine investment. The short answer was no, but we can give you some advice. When drafting the advice for this potential, first time investor in the fine wine market, I came to the conclusion that there are a lot of companies around that offer fancy brochures and services and undoubtedly do a very good job. The flipside of this is that you do pay for that. And in the end, you don't really need that. What you do need is some basic advice that will allow you to select the right wines and avoid some of the pitfalls.
Last Saturday, Christie’s held its first Hong Kong wine auction since 2001. After a series of disappointing results in recent auctions by other houses, it’s good to see that demand is still there. Christie’s fetched US $ 4m on a pre-sale estimate of US $ 3.2m with 94% of lots sold. That is a very encouraging result, no doubt helped by some very rare vintages of Latour, ex cellar, bought by Francois Pinault in 1993.
In a bid to boost demand, the Chancellor of the British Government has temporarily lowered the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15%. This of course only applies to duty paid wine. Whilst the drop in the VAT rate might help to increase demand for other goods, it won’t do any good for wine, champagne and port, as the excise duty rates are simultaniously increased as per below:
Duty per 9 litres:
Red & white wine
£18.88
Champagne
£24.19
Port
£25.18
On their news website, the BBC have placed this article. We have been commenting on the recent price fall several times in this blog, so it comes as a bit of non-news. In the article though, Berry's uses the example of Lafite Rothschild 2005 falling in price from the high of gbp 10,000 to gbp 7,500. Interestingly, you can pick up this wine from Ditton Wine Traders for gbp 6,500 – proving our point that our prices are very difficult to beat.
There are more and more signs that the recent, steep fall in prices is starting to halt. Whilst volume of trade in especially October was low, we see that more and more buyers are bargain hunting at the new prices levels. Where 2 weeks ago stock was being offered cheaply without finding a buyer, we now see more and more of the same stock being snapped up and even slightly increasing in price again. There's an interesting article on this in Decanter, with views from various people in the trade.
To add some more background to yesterday's blog entry, Decanter have asked Liv-ex to comment on price developments. Here's what they say: "Fine wine prices hit new low". Interestingly, Liv-ex see that prices have more or less stabilized in the last 2 weeks, after the very steep drop in October. Personally, I think we have not seen the bottom quite yet although we can't be too far off. The latest auction by Hart, Davis Hart in Chicago, on November 1st, shows encouraging sell through rates, with only 8 lots out of 1,128 remaining unsold.
In the last few weeks, we have seen Fine Wine Prices coming down rather rapidly. Reuters have just published an interesting article on this, "Global credit crisis puts damper on wine prices". Auction houses see their sell-through rates dropping and prices as compared to only 6 weeks ago are significantly down. When looking at the Livex 100, the widely quoted Fine Wine Price Index, we see a drop of 16% from the high in August.
Well well, it’s been quite a week. We’ve seen a meltdown in the financial markets that has unsettled even the most experienced players. In fact, it took on such proportions that there was a very real, systemic risk of the whole financial system breaking down. Not surprisingly, this has triggered a global response from governments. After the US took the initiative in announcing measures, it now seems that the UK has initiated the right response in buying stakes in the troubled banks, forcing them to own up to a much larger figure of cash needed than they previously communicated.
Today was another day of mayhem on the stock exchanges. The CAC- 40, the French stock market index, lost 9% of it's value which is the largest one-day-drop ever. Both the FTSE and the DAX are down 7% and Asia closed this morning showing losses of between 4% and 6%. As I write this, the DOW trades 780 points or 7.6% lower. On such a day, or rather a series of days with extreme uncertainty ranging to panic, it won't come as a surprise that fine wine prices are coming down as well.
Many thanks for taking some time to read this. I intend to use this page to keep you updated on events and developments in the Fine Wine & Champagne market. This website being principally a trading site, the entries will be focussing on events that bear a direct relationship to wine and their prices. We will not spend time on tasting notes – there are many other websites and blogs that cover these extensively – other than when they have an impact on Fine Wine prices.
