Wine buyers warn prices must fall as Bordeaux fails to tickle palates

whom the ¡°fantastic¡± vintages of 2009 and 2010 proved a damp squib.

Wine merchants, fresh from tasting the year¡¯s first Bordeaux, are warning that it falls short of the two previous superlative vintages and that prices will need to drop accordingly.

Last year¡¯s incipient ¡°Bordeaux bubble¡± saw Lafite en primeur (still in the barrel) selling for £10,000 (€12,120) a case and there has been zero subsequent appreciation, merchants say.

¡° is not going to compete in terms of quality and certainly needs to be cheap,¡± said Joss Fowler, who handles fine wine sales at Berry Bros Rudd, one of the biggest UK buyers of Bordeaux.

¡°With the two very expensive years . . . where wines have not appreciated in price much, people will need financial incentive to buy. Some wines are going to have to be half what they were last year.¡±

Bordeaux producing Châteaux are expected to start pricing their wine this month in what Antoine Gimbert, who runs the UK and Hong Kong operations for wine merchant Mill¨¦sima, refers to as ¡°a kind of poker game. It¡¯s a tiny world, so you have to be careful targeting the right price¡±.

This year that exercise will be more finely poised still. Asian buyers have just begun buying en primeur, said Mr Fowler, meaning their experience to date is unimpressive.

¡°If they just bought 2009s and 2010s and have not seen any monetary appreciation, they will say ¡®What¡¯s the point?¡¯ The risk for Bordeaux is to alienate a market that¡¯s going to be very important to them in the future.¡±

Drinkers in China and other parts of Asia have proved a boon to purveyors of wine, Scotch whisky and Cognac and other alcoholic drinks by paying for pricey bottles ¨C as much a status symbol among the recently rich as a designer handbag.

Gary Boom, managing director of merchants Bordeaux Index, puts the 2011 vintage on a scale of ¡°6.5 to 7 out of 10¡±.

He points to the 2008 vintage that was priced cheaply and generated returns, and the 2000 vintage that he describes as ¡°the holy grail: great quality but also low pricing¡±.

A case of 2000 Château Lafite, bought for £2,000, is now worth £16,000, he says.

Other wines from that year have increased four- and fivefold in value. ¨C Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012