Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, one of the most-praised wines of 2010, has dropped 16% in price.
Ducru Beaucaillou: ‘best St Julien this year’
Bruno Borie gave the 2010 en primeur campaign a boost yesterday, when he released Ducru Beaucaillou at €150 ex-negociant, a drop of 16.7% from 2009, despite most critics saying it was the best example of the wine for years.
‘This was smart timing, especially after Cos d’Estournel earlier in the day, which did also drop its price (-5.7% to €198 ex-negociant), but not by a large enough percentage to get buyers excited,’ one Bordeaux negociant said.
Some London merchants are reporting slow sales, and lack of demand, for Cos d’Estournel, which is reckoned to have been ‘trumped’ by Ducru, as Stephen Browett of Farr Vintners put it.
‘By being cheaper, and with equal or better scores, Ducru has rather trumped Cos this year.’
Ducru was almost universally lauded as one of the best wines of the vintage during En Primeur this year.
Steven Spurrier, in Decanter, described its ‘superb colour’ and ‘explosion of fruit above great depth’, and said it was ‘hard to imagine a better Ducru’.
Browett also reported that Ducru quickly released a second tranche, 10% up on the first, which had ‘sold out so quickly’.
At Bordeaux Index Gary Boom said Cos was ‘very quiet’, and at Fine & Rare, Simon Davies told Decanter.com ‘Ducru is the best St Julien this year so we will be encouraging our customers to buy.
‘Cos hasn’t sold as well as we would have liked or expected, given how good the wine is.’
Simon Staples, however, at Berry Bros, said he was ‘delighted’ to have sold 400 cases of Cos, which was ‘far better than I thought’.
Ducru’s second wine, Croix de Beaucaillou, came out at €33.60 ex- negociant, a raise from €25.80 in 2009, but this was widely expected after its relaunch, and label redesign by Jade Jagger.
Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux, and Adam Lechmere
