Over the last few weeks the annual sparing has begun between the wine chateaux of Bordeaux and those merchants who will attempt to sell their wines. Only this time round the wine merchants are determined to win. Clearly the world economy has hit the buffers and in consequence there are fewer and fewer customers who are willing to pay top dollar for the best wines.
Could I dare to suggest therefore that this could be a good time to buy? I know I will go against people’s natural reaction to draw in their horns, but really when you consider that prices have dropped by 20% on the top wines. Is it not the time to get out the cheque book? Anyway I digress. The origination of my zeal was generated by an article in The Times called “Bordeaux vintners threatened with boycott over high prices” whereby it was claimed that many of the wine merchants have threatened to boycott the 2008 en primeur wines unless prices are significantly reduced back to 2002 levels. I have a great deal of sympathy for the merchants because many of them still have stock of 2007 en primeur which was subsequently found to be over-priced. I overheard someone say that never buy a wine that contains a number 7 in the vintage. Sounds like sound judgment to me. Over-priced possibly but not at the time of release, we could have not foreseen the collapse ahead of us. Perhaps those merchants who are bleeting hardest are stuck with 07’s and are unable to find a friendly bank manager to help them purchase the 08’s. We are now entering a world of bluff and counter bluff. I am personally waiting to see. I can tell you this though the chateaux owners are waiting for the trade to visit Bordeaux and once they have received their assessments only then will they be able to make an educated guess on prices.