The useful Vintage and Market Report 2001 is out from Maison Sichel, a fair-minded annual review of the Bordeaux market now written by Allan G Sichel, the third generation (after father Peter and grandfather Allan) to do so. The proofreading is considerably improved and the judgements just as reasonable. There's no hype here (well, just a little gloss on September's rainy weather) and it looks at the whole of Bordeaux, not just the top three per cent of wines that tend to preoccupy the literature and sites like this one.
Here's what I found most intriguing:
- the average (opening) price increase of crus classés in 2000 over 2001 was 22 per cent
- the top 30 crus classés however increased their prices overall by 40 per cent 'to reach a record 85 per cent on first tranche allocations, prices being tripled by the time the 3rd tranche was issued'
- Sichel, who wrote his report last month, says of 2001 prices that they will have to come down by 10-15 per cent and 'those chateaux which have priced themsleves out of the market, will need to drop their price by 30 per cent, 40 per cent or maybe 50 per cent'. We shall see
- last year all significant export markets for Bordeaux wines (of all qualities) registered a reduction in value of exports, except for the US and Canada (+4 and +5 per cent respectively). Overall Bordeaux exports fell 4 per cent in value and 3 per cent in volume, with the top three markets in value, very close together, being Germany, the US, Belgium / Luxembourg and the UK. The Bordelais are really getting the message that the world doesn't love them any more
- at the bottom end of the Bordeaux wine lake, there is now this programme of seizing bottles off shelves around the world and submitting them to be tasted blind by three experts. They're apparently marked A for excellent, B for good, C for dull and D for substandard. I'd love to know what proportion of the 2800 wines samples each year are given a D and a C. My guess is that C is the most common mark.
To obtain copies of this and/or previous vintage reports, you'll have to email v.frestel@sichel.fr but surely by next year it will be available online?