The price of claret
I recently shared a very tasty lunch at The Crown Hotel in Southwold, courtesy of the resident Adnams wine buyers Alastair Marshall and Rob Chase. For fun I took with me the record of my very first ever purchase from Adnams (and Alastair), dated 31 August 1983. It included 11 bottles of the fine Chateau Haut Bailly, 1979. The price was £7.42 per bottle.
I purchased the 1982 (disappointing) and 1983 (better) for not a lot more, and then a gap until the 1998, priced at £22.50 per bottle in a good year. Later vintages are currently £23 for 2001, and £40 per bottle for the exceptional 2005.
Problems arise at the top levels of Bordeaux. The 1983 Adnams catalogue lists the 1979 Chateau Ausone at £26.45 per bottle and the 1978 Ch Palmer at £17.25. A comparable recent vintage to 1979 or 1978 might be 2001, with a similar level of bottle age. Ch Palmer 2001 is a reasonable £50, and 2005 £140. But Ch Ausone? Yes, the amazing Alain Vaulthier has replaced the more mercurial Pascal Delbeck. Yet the prices .. 2001 at £450 and 2005 a mouth watering £1250 per bottle.
Has the world gone mad? Or is it all about minute quantities (15000 bottles) of one special First Growth Claret for the world’s wine collecting elite, at a time of economic strength. Time will tell where we go from here, and whether I will drink Ausone again. But Haut Bailly is still a good buy.
I recently shared a very tasty lunch at The Crown Hotel in Southwold, courtesy of the resident Adnams wine buyers Alastair Marshall and Rob Chase. For fun I took with me the record of my very first ever purchase from Adnams (and Alastair), dated 31 August 1983. It included 11 bottles of the fine Chateau Haut Bailly, 1979. The price was £7.42 per bottle.
I purchased the 1982 (disappointing) and 1983 (better) for not a lot more, and then a gap until the 1998, priced at £22.50 per bottle in a good year. Later vintages are currently £23 for 2001, and £40 per bottle for the exceptional 2005.
Problems arise at the top levels of Bordeaux. The 1983 Adnams catalogue lists the 1979 Chateau Ausone at £26.45 per bottle and the 1978 Ch Palmer at £17.25. A comparable recent vintage to 1979 or 1978 might be 2001, with a similar level of bottle age. Ch Palmer 2001 is a reasonable £50, and 2005 £140. But Ch Ausone? Yes, the amazing Alain Vaulthier has replaced the more mercurial Pascal Delbeck. Yet the prices .. 2001 at £450 and 2005 a mouth watering £1250 per bottle.
Has the world gone mad? Or is it all about minute quantities (15000 bottles) of one special First Growth Claret for the world’s wine collecting elite, at a time of economic strength. Time will tell where we go from here, and whether I will drink Ausone again. But Haut Bailly is still a good buy.