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Hors Bordeaux campaign “failed to revitalise the market”
The Hors Bordeaux campaign “failed to revitalise the market” when buyer sentiment was already dampened by a lacklustre en primeur campaign, fine wine investment firm Wine Cap have said.
In its Q3 report, released this week, WineCap noted that the stage was already “challenging” for the La Place September campaign, following eleven months of market decline and global economic uncertainties, while buyer sentiment had already been dampened by the “mixed reception of the En Primeur 2022’s campaign,
However, despite some excellent wines being releases the campaign failed to “revitalise the market,” the report stated. It pointed to the higher price of the new releases compared to back vintages, which failed to deliver value”, as well as the “fast pace” of the campaign which “overwhelmed” the trade and customers.
“Some days saw over five releases from different regions, offered at various points and with divergent quality and style,” it noted, pointing to comments by Tom Parker MW, writing for JancisRobinson.com, who said it risked losing the stories behind the wines themselves.
In its October report, Liv-ex also noted that many merchants “expressed dissatisfaction” with the high volume of releases of “relatively unknown wines at unrealistic prices”. As with the earlier en primeur campaign, “the promise of an exceptional vintage was not enough to withstand the hefty price increases implemented by many estates”, it noted.
Quality
This apparent failure to fly came despite the quality of some of the wines being “excellent”, WineCap noted, with Jane Anson awarding 100 point scores to Bibi Graetz Colore 2021, Yjar 2019, and Giaconda Chardonnay 2021 (which makes it debut release tomorrow), while newcomer Chappellet’s Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 was not far behind with 99 points from the critic.
The other good news was that there were some investment opportunities, WineCap noted, pointing to Almaviva 2021 and Masseto 2020, which “offered good value for money in the context of previous vintages”, even though this year’s release price was higher than last year’s release, as Almaviva has seen average price growth of 41% over the last five years, with Masseto enjoying 48% growth.