Chateau Latour has broken ranks with the other first growths by releasing its second wine at a much higher price than its peers.
Latour: breaking ranks?
Forts de Latour is €162 per bottle ex-negociant, compared with €108 for the other second wines – Margaux’s Pavillon Rouge, Carruades de Lafite, Petit Mouton and Le Clarence de Haut Brion.
Merchants are still waiting for the release of Latour’s grand vin, the last of the first growths to declare.
Allocations from the top chateaux are consistently down on last year, the properties releasing around half of what they allocated last year.
As reported on Decanter.com this week, Chateau Mouton has been the most sparing, releasing only 35% of its wine.
Chateau Haut Brion has released its grand vin at €660 ex-negociant, 10% more than the 2009 price of €600.
Haut Brion’s second wine, Le Clarence de Haut Brion, is keeping pace with other second wines at €108 ex-negociant, 20% up on its 2009 price of €90.
One of the most-praised wines of 2010, St Julien Chateau Leoville Las Cases, given an almost-perfect 19.5 points by Steven Spurrier and described as ‘a great wine in the most simple sense of the term’, has reduced its price by 11% to come out at €192, compared with €216 last year.
The often-controversial St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classe Chateau Pavie, described by James Lawther MW for Decanter as ‘huge and muscular’ and ‘aromatically pitched closer to the Mediterranean with raisined fruit notes’ is 14% up on last year at €225 ex-negociant.
ALL PRICES QUOTED ARE PER BOTTLE
Written by Adam Lechmere, and Jane Anson in Bordeaux
