Latour's first ever 2012 release - but the rest of the First Growths will need to try an awful lot harder with 2019 en primeur
by CloMlr
2020-05-27
So Latour 2012 is out today at £350 a bottle. What’s that got to do with 2019 EP I hear you ask? Well coming as it does just before the releases of the 2019 big boys, and because it’s the first release from Latour that wasn’t previously released EP, it’s seen as a test of the market and what the consumer’s appetite is for laying out hard earned spondoolies in The Time of Covid.
I’ve seen emails from merchants this morning gushing that this is the cheapest Latour in the market today, and how they’ve got the pricing right.
The retail channel needs to see the 2019 releases come out minus 30% v 2018. That would put Lafite et al at around £2,000/ 6 and at that price it would sell. Plus it might just re-energise the Bordeaux secondary market with a dollop of positive sentiment.
However If we compare 2012 Latour to other comparable vintages of Latour, so say 2008, 2006 and 2004, which I think is rather realistic, we see a very different picture.
Here’s the market price and JR points plotted for 2012 and those benchmark vintages selected:
And here’s the weighted effect of that taking into account scores:
The longer the bar the better the value, the bigger the gap between the longest and the next, the more compelling the buy. Not much in it is there? Which says that Ch. Latour, far from doing their 2019 EP peers a massive favour, have given absolutely nothing away. There’s no Covid discount baked into this price. The best you can say is that there’s no guff about ex Chateau premium.
So, as a curtain raiser, it's a damp squib. But that’s their release model now and who’s to say they are wrong? At least we know what we’re drinking. The reply to this question, answerable only by Lafite et al, will come soon enough.
Posted in:
Fine wine analysis,
Tags:
Bordeaux, Bordeaux en primeur, Chateau Latour, en primeur, en primeur 2019,
