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June 21, 2010

On Bordeaux 2009 prices

Rauzan-Gassies 2009 Sample

The barrage of releases tend to render blogging instantly out of date so rather than give my thoughts on every release – that’s what the email offers and twitter are for – I thought I would summarise at what I guess is the moment when things are about to go vertical/exciting/silly depending on who you are. It is interesting at this point to start looking at the earlier releases and compare them to the “top” wine. For instance a case of the just released La Mission Haut-Brion (we will offer all the firsts and assorted other wines later) is worth 22 cases of Phélan-Ségur or 20 cases of Rauzan-Gassies. Quality often has a premium but it actually strikes me that the drinker can do very well out of 2009. The people I feel sorry for are those that have always followed a certain wine that then gets the plaudits and rises out of their price range. The obvious candidates that fall into this category are Pontet-Canet, Haut-Bailly and Lascombes. Now nobody, and least of all us, begrudges quality wines getting a good price and the quality has been rising steadily at the likes of Pontet-Canet but is it sustainable and does it offer the “traditional” advantages of buying En Primeur? Getting the stock? Well yes, if you do and you have to be quick. Choosing format? Again yes. Getting the best price? Now this is the tricky one, in the case of the first of the three Châteaux mentioned then yes but for the other two? Possibly not.

The pecking order amongst the Châteaux due to fashion, who is on form etc is always liable to change and let’s face it everyone looks at house prices and things “they’ll never go over £????” but then I guess that happens all the time. All I feel, and this is my view, is that wine has to be very careful to remain close to the drinker, as soon as the gap between investment or the need for an increase in value and drinking becomes too large the whole thing is liable to risk bursting….as ever I guess only time will tell…in the meantime my advise is to stock up on wines like Phélan, Rauzan Gassies and other wines you like in that sub £300 bracket.

See all the latest releases and price on http://www.corneyandbarrow.com/s-55-bordeaux-2009.aspx

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