Compared to the price performances of other regions, Bordeaux looks weaker despite its performance being above the average performances seen in pre-pandemic Power 100 rankings.
Looking more closely the bright spots begin to appear. Château Lafite Rothschild is still the second most traded brand by value and one of the top 10 by volume.
Château Cheval Blanc only dropped one place with a solid all-round performance, while Château d’Yquem rose 20 places with a sizeable number of vintages trading and high trade value.
Anticipation of Château Figeac being promoted in the Saint-Emilion classification this September (which did indeed happen) made it one of Bordeaux’s best price performers but it still dropped down the rankings. On the one hand, many other wines had much better price performance but also its trade value and volume fell as many buyers had stocked up the year before in anticipation of its promotion.
Fumbled en primeur campaigns and stock retention is now a long-standing issue for Bordeaux which continue to hold its wines back in the secondary market. Nonetheless, few regions offer the concentration of brand power, prestige, availability, longevity and, increasingly, good value that Bordeaux does. Compared to the soaring prices of topflight Burgundy or even some prestige Champagne, good claret remains a solid proposition.
© Photo: Wikipedia