In anticipation of this year’s en primeur releases, Wine Lister has published Part 1 of its annual in-depth Bordeaux Study. In collaboration with the world’s most visited wine website, Wine-Searcher, our market overview examines the region’s price performance and comparative popularity progression. Drawing upon valuable insight from 47 leading trade survey respondents, the study also identifies which properties have benefited from a rise in trade confidence over the past year, and explores recommendations for châteaux and merchants to see a successful 2021 en primeur campaign.
Please see our key findings below:
You can download the study digest here: Wine Lister 2022 Bordeaux Study – Digest. The full report can be purchased on our Analysis page, while Pro subscribers can access their free copy here. For further information on the data source, please see the Wine-Searcher website here.
Included in Part II of Wine Lister’s Bordeaux Study 2019 (released last week), are results of our latest trade survey. Wine Lister asks its Founding Members (c.50 key players in the global fine wine trade) to give “confidence” ratings to more than 100 key Bordeaux wines on a scale of 0 to 10; 0 being zero confidence.
For the third consecutive year, no Bordeaux wine received a perfect 10/10. Wines retaining their 9/10 confidence rating since last year are Le Pin, Margaux, Mouton, and Petrus. Joining them in 2019 are Lafleur, Latour, and Vieux Châteaux Certan – the latter being a particular source of interest, given its average price of £139, or just 13% of the average of the rest of the group.
Meanwhile the two remaining left bank first growths, Haut-Brion and Lafite, have slipped down into the next confidence band, receiving an average of 8/10. Saint-Émilion superstar, Canon, has also moved down one point since last year, despite also being cited by the same trade group as a wine seeing the sharpest rise in demand, and a wine of likely future prestige.
The 8/10 category contains 24 wines, compared with 21 in 2018. New entries into the 8/10 category include two of the best performers en primeur – Beychevelle and Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Others moving up to this category are Cos d’Estournel, Les Forts de Latour, and Léoville Barton.
The improved confidence in Pomerol within the top two groups is noticeable, with Lafleur and Vieux Château Certan effectively taking the places of Canon and Lafite, and two wines from the Moueix stable – La Fleur-Pétrus and Trotanoy moving up into the 8/10 category this year (at the expense of Ausone, La Mission Haut-Brion, Léoville Poyferré, Montrose, and Palmer, which have all moved down into the 7/10 group). As well as earning high confidence, Pomerol also achieves the highest number of wines in the 2018 Quality top-25.
Visit Wine Lister’s Analysis page to buy and/or download the full report, and see confidence ratings for all other wines in the study (available in both English and French).
Our Burgundian blog series continues, bringing you new snippets from our recently published Burgundy market study. Included in the study are findings from a survey answered by Wine Lister’s Founding Members – 52 CEOs, MDs and department heads from companies representing over one third of global fine wine revenues.
The most-cited trend was one that we have already explored in our latest blog on Burgundy price performance, namely untrammelled price increases. However our panel of merchants, retailers and auction houses also identified trends such as new styles of winemaking, as well as pinpointing some of the region’s rising stars.
The new generation of Burgundian winemaker seems as committed to quality as ever, while maintaining a more open outlook than their predecessors. This often means a strong focus on terroir transparency and a light touch in the cellar.
According to the trade, many Burgundy winemakers of today seek lower extraction levels , less sulphur, and less oak influence, concentrating on purity of fruit, sometimes by means of whole bunch fermentation.
Buying trends on the consumer side match this freedom of expression, with merchants citing the lesser-known villages, such as Saint-Aubin and Fixin, as up and coming.
This being said, our Founding Members’ consensus on the new domaines to watch for quality and acclaim remained very much among Burgundy’s upper crust, with the likes of Comte Liger-Belair, Vougeraie and Roulot.
You can read about more trends in the full Burgundy market study by subscribing here. Alternatively, a preview of the first 15 pages is available here.