What’s happening in the market?
Opus One 2021 is the top-traded wine of the week by value so far. Exhibiting some volatility, it changed hands between £2,558 (it’s lowest-ever trade price) and £2,720 per 12×75.
Vega Sicilia’s Alion 2020 is in second place, buoying Spain’s share of traded value to 8.1%. While prices had held steadily in Q4 2024 around £570 per 12×25, this week’s trades fell closer to the £500 mark. The 2010, 2013 and 2014 vintages of Unico have also seen some trade.
Today’s deep dive: Antonio Galloni re-scores Bordeaux 2022 in bottle
On Tuesday, Vinous published Antonio Galloni’s 2022 Bordeaux in bottle report, entitled ‘Living in the Present’. Having written at length on the growing season at the time of release, this report focuses on the wines themselves and their reception into this downward moving market. He adds that ‘traditional methods of evaluating vintages are becoming less relevant’ With quality increasingly driven by ‘a property’s ambition and financial means to afford the best tools’ rather than weather or site pedigree, Galloni points to ‘the ambition and financial strength of individual châteaux’ as strong determinants of quality.
The critic awarded a perfect 100-point score to five wines, Vieux Château Certan, La Mission Haut-Brion, Montrose, Les Carmes Haut-Brion and Beau-Séjour Bécot. A further six wines received 99 points. While Galloni states that there are ‘fabulous 2022s to be found in every region in Bordeaux’, seven of his top ten hailed from the Right Bank. The wines vary greatly in price, ranging from La Gaffelière and Beau-Séjour Bécot at £565 and £700 per 12×75 respectively, up to Château Margaux at £5,231 and Château Lafleur at £12,000.
Beau-Séjour Bécot 2022, at just over £50 per bottle, strikes as especially good value. According to Galloni the wine is a ‘total stunner’ and unlike any he has tasted before. ‘More than anything else’, he says, he is ‘impressed with the wine’s precision and finesse’.
Galloni highlights prices as the biggest problem the 2022s are facing. The wines have spent at most a few months in bottle, and yet the majority of their prices have fallen below ex-London release levels. Whilst the 2022s were undeniably priced too-high, Galloni believes is will be difficult for proprietors to lower their prices for the bottled 2022s. Doing so will ‘infuriate négociants, merchants and ultimately consumers who paid high prices for the wines less than two years ago’ and tacitly admit that ‘prices were too high for the wines on release’. A sentiment we have echoed in several recent Market Updates and Reports, the release of the 2024 vintage will serve as an ‘inflection point’ for Bordeaux and the wider market.
Lafleur provides a good example of how alternative pricing strategies can prevail. The château has eschewed Bordeaux’s release pricing swings, instead opting for a more stable and transparent model. As a result, prices of Lafleur tend to rise more consistently. While the wine’s relative scarcity renders initial entry points high enough to box out most buyers, those lucky few to have received Lafleur En Primeur allocations have been the few to see returns. Of the past 10 vintages, only the 2013’s Market Price sits below its ex-London release.
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 £140m of bids and offers across 20,000 wines.
