Cheval Blanc today released its 2006 en primeur price at €400 per bottle, €480 to the Bordeaux trade, exactly the same as last year.
Asked for his opinion, Hamilton Narby, a Bordeaux negociant who sells Cheval Blanc said the price was now almost irrelevant.
‘We went through a price barrier in 2005 and people are now used to prices of €4-500 a bottle for these wines,’ he said. ‘There are now enough people around who can buy it, to drink it or to speculate on it, that the price is not an issue,’ he said.
Narby fully expects the last two en primeur prices that have yet to be released, for Petrus and Le Pin, to come out higher than Cheval Blanc. ‘Because that is the pecking order,’ he said. He estimated the two wines would end up costing close to €1000 per bottle retail.
‘With countries like China and India in the market, there will eventually be such a shortage of these wines, buying them and holding them could be one of the smartest investment moves around.’
Written by Sophie Kevany in Bordeaux
