| Prices for leading Bordeaux wines in the London market are showing signs of cooling after a 12-month surge fed by demand for top vintages such as Latour and Petrus, reports Guy Collins on Bloomberg.com.
Collector interest in Bordeaux wines of 2000 vintage, as well as in 2005 wines on the En Primeur market, has driven the benchmark Liv-ex 100 Index of investment-grade wines up 47 percent in the 12 months ending Oct. 31.
The index dropped 1.6 percent in September, the first monthly decline since June last year. Investors and wine professionals say record-high prices for some recent vintages are encouraging buyers to hunt for value among second-growth wines such as Cos d'Estournel and Pichon-Baron. That's damping prices of some other top labels.
At a Christie's auction in London Oct. 19, a case of 1982 second-growth Chateau Gruaud-Larose from Saint-Julien sold for about $3,000. That's below a recent high of $3300 recorded in Decanter magazine's auction-price tracker published this month, although above the $ 2100 level recorded a year ago.
At the same auction, three cases of 1990 wine from the third-growth Chateau Palmer fetched about $2000, below the latest Decanter tracker level of $2100, though up 27 percent from a year ago.
'There is a polarization toward exceptional products', says Peter Lunzer, who manages 10 million pounds at the Wine Investment Fund in London. 'We know that in places like the emerging markets, especially China, the label is a vital thing to have on the table', he adds. 'People will pay pretty much whatever it takes in order to have that stock', says he according to the report'.
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The current scenario of China is expected to be replicated in India in 3-5 years' time when people learn to appreciate the high-end wines and the prices and status they command. Indian Wine Academy has been bullish on En Primeur 2005 from second growths like Cos, Gruaud Larose, Pichon Lalande, and the likes of Chateau Palmer as they offer less risk for the novices but decent appreciation- Editor |
