Prices on Bordeaux 2015 en primeur wines as they leave negociant cellars look set to rise by between 10% and 20% versus the 2014 vintage, suggests an initial trickle of releases plus survey data from Liv-ex.
The past few days have seen the first Bordeaux 2015 en primeur releases, with ex-negociant prices for Château Chasse-Spleen and Coutet both around 10% higher than for their 2014 en primeur releases.
Château Angludet has also released, and its price was up by 28% versus the 2014 release price, according to a note from Corney & Barrow.
The ex-negociant price is the price of the wine when it notionally leaves negociant warehouses, albeit the wines themselves remain in barrel at the châteaux for now.
Almost 74% of merchants across the international trade surveyed by Liv-ex said that they expected more consumer demand for Bordeaux 2015 than for 2014.
However, as merchants in both the UK and US have told Decanter.com, release prices will be critical in determining demand.
Most merchants surveyed by Liv-ex following en primeur tasting week said that they expected price increases on several top Bordeaux 2015 wines to be somewhere between 10 and 20%.
If that is the case, merchants in the UK in particular will be concerned about the knock-on effects of the euro/sterling exchange rate. Sterling’s recent weakness against the euro means a 10% ex-Bordeaux price increase automatically becomes a 20% real-terms increase in the UK.
Consumers have lost money on en primeur purchases on average in five of the past eight campaigns, according to Liv-ex.
Read more about the Bordeaux 2015 vintage and see Decanter scores for individual wines
Best Bordeaux 2015 white wines
Top dry whites from the 2015 vintage...
Bordeaux 2015 scores: Full Decanter ratings revealed
See Decanter's Bordeaux 2015 scores and tasting notes here
Bordeaux 2015 en primeur: Little room for error, say merchants
Bordeaux 2015 vintage: How it compares to others
