Recent trading activity
Champagne has been in the spotlight this week, with 17.9% of trade by value. Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé 2008 was one of the most active wines. Bollinger RD 2008 was released on Tuesday and already traded at £1,224 per 6×75. It is currently bid at £1,150. Our pricing analysis (published ahead of the release) can be found here.
Chateau Latour 2015 was also released yesterday at £3,150 per 6×75. It is currently offered LIVE at £1,760 per 3×75, but has yet to trade (at the time of writing).
Meanwhile, older Bordeaux vintages continued to trade at all-time highs. This week, Chateau Ausone 2002 and Chateau Leoville Poyferre 2010 traded at highs of £4,550 an £1,340 per 12×75 respectively.
Clos des Lambrays 2021 pricing analysis
Ahead of Domaine des Lambrays, Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2021 release in the UK market, we review its price in the context of other vintages currently available.
The 2021 vintage was awarded a barrel range of 93-95 from William Kelley (Wine Advocate). In his tasting note, Kelley described it as ‘a pretty, perfumed and impressively deep wine’ and added that ‘it concludes with good persistence’.
Neal Martin (Vinous) was more generous and scored it 96-98 points. He noted that it had a ‘very harmonious finish’ and was ‘heavenly’.
Fair Value analysis
Prices for Clos des Lambrays are 65% correlated to Wine Advocate scores*. If the 2021 vintage were to be released at £5,000 per 12×75 (similar to the 2020 release), it would lie significantly above the ‘Fair Value’ line.
Buyers looking for other options may want to consider the similarly-scored 2012, 2014 and 2015 vintages. All of the wines fall below the ‘Fair Value’ line and are available between £2,900 and £3,310 per case.
Neal Martin scores
However, it is worth noting that Neal Martin has scored recent Domaine des Lambray vintages more favourably than William Kelley, which might also be impacting their prices on the secondary market.
The chart below shows what the ‘Fair Value’ analysis would look like with Neal Martin scores. Although the correlation is only 43%, a release price of £5,000 might look more reasonable given Martin’s barrel range of 96-98 points.
That being said, with 97 points from the Neal Martin, the 2018 vintage would look more appealing at £3,303 per 12×75.
As noted in last year’s release, the estate recently reorganised its distribution and prising. As such, recent releases have been priced at a premium. The 2019 release was the first vintage at the estate overseen by new manager and winemaker Jacques Devauges. Devauges was hired by LVMH after he left neighbouring property Clos de Tart in early 2019, bringing him on to replace Thierry Brouin who had retired.
There are currently over 380 LIVE Domaine des Lambrays opportunities on your exchange.
Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 620 merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £100m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines.
