I just saw an article that was dated Saturday in the online Wall Street Journal. The regular critics (Gaiter and Brecher) were pretty down on the 2006 firsts, describing them as green and vegetal. I think they paid around $600 per bottle. At that price, some inexpensive wines recently reviewed here sound like no-brainers. They also had some interesting commentary about the risks you take as a buyer of a first growth - from the standpoint of the position the retailer would take. It went something like this:
(1) If you buy it and drink it young and don't like it, then it was your fault for drinking it too young.
(2) If you drink it in 5 years and don't like it, then it was your fault for drinking it during it's dumb phase.
(3) If you drink it in 10 years and don't like it, then it's your fault for bad storage.
I believe you need to subscribe/pay for access there, so if others read the hardcopy or online versions, feel free to comment.
Jon, I don't follow Brecher and Gaiter regularly enough to know how my palate aligns with theirs. But for $600 you'd be expecting something pretty special. I actually think you take the same type of risks with any wine (you can add "you waited too long"). It's just that at $600 a pop, the risk is an order of magnitude larger. '04 was the last vintage I bought any first growths, when they could still be had at less than $200.
My days of buying young first growths are long over. $600 for grape juice is toooo much, IMO.
Tonight I'll crack an '82 Haut-Brion for Lucie as it is our 41st anniversary. At auctions you can buy this wine for under $500, but I would not spend that much for a bottle. I bought a case a few years ago as part of a collection of 60 bottles from the estate of a Nobel prize winning chemist. I felt very good about the purchase, partly because I got good value and partly because the entire amount I paid went to an orphanage.
"The estate of a Nobel prize winning chemist." Already I would like that wine better than if it came from the estate of a frugal collector in the Bronx. Provenance is the three most important things in wine.
I would add as to first growths what the retailer really means is that
(1) If you buy it and drink it young and don't like it, then it was your fault because you were too young and naive.
(2) If you drink it in 5 years and don't like it, then it was your fault for drinking it during your dumb phase.
(3) If you drink it in 10 years and don't like it, then it's your fault for not knowing your palate sooner.
The 1 growth prices have no logic anway. Why on earth would I buy a 2006 Latour for $780 when I can buy the 1983 for $300? And the 1983 is a tremendous wine, not even yet on his peak. This, being in the mid 40, will I live long enough to trink the 2006 Latour on its peak?
Let the russian and chinese millionere mix their stuff with cola and trink the 2006 right away. Let them stay away from the good stuff, so skilled people can buy it. If we had a trinkers license for 1th growth Bordeaux the 2006 wines would be much cheaper.
One thing is sure: $600 is way too much.. even for classified grape juice as mentioned by Stefan!
There are certainly a number of nice lefties in 2006. But to my view, the best of 2006 probably comes from the Right Bank which offers an outstanding number of truly excellent wines for less than 1/10th of the First Growths' price!
Cheers,
Alain
Last edited by AlainB. on Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
I swore I wouldn't buy any Bdx after 2005, at any level. But then I went and bought a half-case of '06 Angelus. I just can't stay away from that stuff.
I enjoy their articles, but as discussed in a long ago thread, Brecher and Gaiter, although professionals and critics, are aiming for a how-does-it-taste-now crowd rather than an evaluation of how the wine may evolve.....so I don't see too much conflict in their poor reviews and other critics outstanding reviews.
I'd certainly agree with them about poor value; what was the phrase the producers were saying...."the world must be thirsty".....when they justified '06 pricing.
I propose an Angelus vertical in Washington DC in a few years!
Guys,
In the many years I have been drinking wine, the first growths and other trophy wines (Petrus, Le Pin, Lafleur et al) have become the wines of the new rich, arbitragers and blatant show-offs. They can all shove it.
I have not bought first growths since 2002 vintage and even then I thought they were too expensive and baulked for some time.
They are 5-6 times the cost now.
Sheesh. The 95 Latour cost me $120 and then I got a bulk discount (you guys probably paid half that as the $A was low then).
The 05 came out here at $1200 - ten times the cost - and the 06 was about $900 or so.
So let's get real. The prices are demand driven and whilst they have softened with the GFC, they haven't come down much.
