En Primeur picked up on Monday right where it left off last Friday – with a flurry of releases. Liv-ex covered over 30 individual wines with our analysis blogs, all of which can be found on our News and Insights.
The week was opened by Cheval Blanc, which released at £4,500 per 12×75, down 31.7% from last year and like many wines released with discounts of that nature, grabbed the market’s attention and has sold well. Our Fair Value analysis put this release firmly in buy territory.
Mouton Rothschild released on Tuesday, at €282 per bottle ex-négociant, down 30.9% on the 2018 opening. Two days later, another First Growth, Haut Brion, released at the same ex-négociant price (€282). Both wines sold well, again offering excellent value against the physical market. However, for US buyers there could be a significant price difference. Mouton carries an ABV of 13.5% making it eligible for US tariffs. Haut Brion and its kin Mission Haut Brion have an ABV of 14.5% meaning both these wines will be 25% cheaper in the United States with the current tariff situation, assuming nothing changes between now and 2022 when the wines become physical.
Other releases through the middle of the week included Lynch Bages, Cantenac Brown, Pavie, Calon Segur, Leoville Poyferre and Haut Batailley, ranging in discounts against 2018 of 15%-30%. Lynch the most successful release of group.
Additional critic scores have been posted this week from the Wine Insider’s Jeff Leve and Jeb Dunnuck. How their scores compare among the other published critics can be found on our Critic Scores Grid.
With the market’s focus squarely on the newest vintage, Bordeaux’s market share fell again, to 31.7%. Burgundy (30.6%) was helped by trade in big ticket wines from DRC and Domaine Leroy, which carry some of the highest price tags for the region.
Champagne’s share drifted (7.0%) while Italy rebounded from last week’s loss.
Domaine Leroy, Corton Charlemagne 2009 was the top traded wine by value this week. 2017 Burgundy made up the lion’s share of trade by volume for the region, but it was 2009 and 2008 that took most trade by value.
Two Italian wines, Altesino Brunello Montalcino 2015 and Antinori, Bolgheri Guado Al tasso 2017 made the top 5 this week. Liv-ex’s recent LWIN upgrades allows for separation by sub region and we can see that of the Italian Wine traded 31% came from Bolgheri and 28% from Brunello di Montalcino, with Barolo rounding out the top three at 11%.