2007 Bordeaux: prices from Quinault, Beychevelle, Rieussec
May 6, 2008
Jane Anson in Bordeaux

Above: A young woman tastes wine on March 31, 2008 at Bordeaux prestigious Haut Brion’ winehouse, in Pessac, southwestern France, during the weeklong tasting of the 2007 Bordeaux vintage that officially began this weekend. The selling of wines ‘en primeur’ — which means first or new — simply means the selling of the latest wine harvest, in this case 2007, six months after it was made and two years before it is bottled and commercially available.

The first prominent red wine properties have begun to release their prices for Bordeaux 2007s – days after Robert Parker released his scores for the vintage.

Among the first was Chateau Quinault L’Enclos, Saint Emilion grand cru, owned by Alain Raynaud (who got one of the best Parker scores of 91-93, bettering Lafite and Latour at 90-93).

Despite the high score, he has come down around 15% from last year, selling to the Place at €20.

‘I felt that even though the quality was better than last year,’ Raynaud told decanter.com, ‘I wanted to set a price that would sell, taking into account the global economy, and allow others along the chain to make money.

‘If we don’t do that, the basic mechanism of the en primeur system has failed.’

Twenty-four hours after release, Raynaud has sold 50% of his total 2007 stock.

Other properties to date have not followed this logic. Chateau Beychevelle came out at a 5% drop of €25.50, while Sociando Mallet (unscored by Parker) remained almost the same as last year, at €23.00 just €0.50 down on his release price of 2006.

Sauternes properties have so far released at an average of 5% above 2005, with Rieussec leading the pack at a massive rise of 30% on last year.

Source & Credits: Decanter (UK).