Carruades de Lafite 2021 was released today (12 May) at €160 per bottle ex-Bordeaux, which analyst group Wine Lister said was around 6% below the 2020-vintage release price.
It marks an early release for the second wine of Lafite Rothschild in this year’s fledgling Bordeaux en primeur campaign.
Château Duhart-Milon, the fourth growth Pauillac estate owned by Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR Lafite), was also released. Farr Vintners was offering a 12-bottle case for £672 in bond.
Wine Lister said Carruades had a recommended onward selling price of £165 per bottle in bond, which is lower than available back-vintages and ‘looks attractive as ever’.
Arthur Coggill, associate director and fine wine buyer at UK merchant Goedhuis & Co, told Decanter, ‘It’s great to see Saskia de Rothschild [CEO of DBR Lafite] release Carruades at a good price, less than the 2018 or 2020 vintages on release, and at £990 [6x75cl in bond] this makes it the cheapest vintage available on the market today – what en primeur should all be about.’
Matthew O’Connell, CEO of LiveTrade at Bordeaux Index and also head of the merchant’s investment arm, was relatively positive on the price too.
Given price rises for Carruades vintages on the secondary market in the past year, ‘we think this is a well-judged price level in the context of the 2021 vintage campaign’, he told Decanter.
Coming soon: Our full Bordeaux 2021 en primeur verdict with tasting notes and scores on top wines
Lafite Rothschild’s second wine is highly regarded in its own right, and has a reputation for price appreciation on the market following en primeur release.
Wine Lister said the 2020 vintage had risen strongly in price over the past year. Liv-ex said at the end of April that Carruades de Lafite 2019 was also up by 39% since release, based on its last traded price on the group’s global marketplace for the trade.
There has been extra uncertainty around how Bordeaux 2021 releases might fare during the traditional en primeur campaign, largely due to the challenging nature of the vintage.
Yet excellent wines can still be found, according to a Decanter report on the first impressions of the Bordeaux 2021 barrel samples.
Earlier this week, Château Batailley also earned praise from merchants for holding its release price level with 2020.
However, it’s very early days in the campaign, with many big-name releases to come and critics’ reviews of the still-in-barrel vintage only just emerging following the en primeur tasting week at the end of April.
