Cheval Blanc paves the way for 22 en primeur sales

[AlexR]

... and prices are going north...

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/ ... -in-price/

AR

[JimHow]

ironically, it is 1980s icon Patty Smyth that comes to mind.

Goodbye to you, Bordeaux....

My cellar is full at about 900 bottles. I'll supplement it with a little Felsina here, a little Pavelot there.... Give me some Larose Trintaudon year after year.

But as for any sort of major purchases of Bordeaux from here on out?

Goodbye baby, goodbye to you....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50-gOeBilc

I don't know if there is a more iconic 1980s hit, it is a 1986 Gruaud Larose of 1980s MTV....

[Musigny 151]

Interesting article in Wine Searcher on acidity and the possibility of winemaker intervention. I not want to hit copyright issues, but could not copy the URL. Easy to find f you google Winesearcher acid test 2022

Personally been puzzled by reports of high alcohol and good acidity.

“ There is, though, one way acidity can go up in a ferment: the winemaker adds tartaric acid to it.”

“But the issue is why the use of additions and winemaking hasn’t really been touched on. Some have done so. WGF Kelley in The Wine Advocate came close to it when he alluded to “winemaking choices” coming through in climate change vintages such as Bordeaux 2022 on Instagram recently. He also alluded to it in a long piece earlier in March that dealt with Bordeaux’s viticultural and winemaking advances. Indeed, Colin Hay in Drinks Business also touched on it a bit, pointing to the technical proficiency of winemakers in Bordeaux and hinting at the advances in technical aptitude in the region. But neither has gone much further.”

[Blanquito]

2022 futures? Really? Does anyone (outside of the business, naturally) still care? We are all sheep.

I know the wine press constantly beats the futures drum, but that’s just because they are part (bought snd sold) of the idiot-loop industry.

We should spend a whole year on BWE only talking about ready to drink wines. We should boycott the incessant shiny-new-thing noise. Bordeaux takes decades to drink well. We all have way too much wine. Nearly all of us are (far) too old to give the slightest thought to any claret not at least a decade old already (probably more like 2 decades).

[jal]

Well, I'm on a freeze anyway. Not that I would have been tempted, especially at these prices...

[AKR]

2022 futures? Really? Does anyone (outside of the business, naturally) still care? We are all sheep.

I know the wine press constantly beats the futures drum, but that’s just because they are part (bought snd sold) of the idiot-loop industry.

We should spend a whole year on BWE only talking about ready to drink wines. We should boycott the incessant shiny-new-thing noise. Bordeaux takes decades to drink well. We all have way too much wine. Nearly all of us are (far) too old to give the slightest thought to any claret not at least a decade old already (probably more like 2 decades).

I think its crazy for the media to be discussing 'futures' given recent problems at Sherry-Lehman and now Underground Cellars. If banks themselves are on shaky footing, why would people trust a private, no disclosure deep cyclical retailer like fine wine peddlers? (I'm ignoring Wally's as that might just be their usual service incompetence rather than malign conduct)

If taking risk on wine in the future isn't rewarded with some discount versus the existing stocks, what's the point?

[AlexR]

I'm an old guy.
I''ve been hearing about the pointlessness of buying en primeur for décades.
But still the circus continues.

AR

[Musigny 151]

And will continue to do do…
There is a sort of completeness buying a wine in barrel, and opening it twenty years later. For some reason, it is more yours than if you bought it in the store. A friend who buys a lot of futures compared it to being a child’s godfather than just a family friend.

[DavidG]

I get unreasonably emotional about Bordeaux, but feel no sentimental attachment to futures per se. When it was a good deal financially I bought most of my Bordeaux en primeur. That ended a long time ago, with 2019s as the sole exception.

That doesn’t mean we should stop talking about the wines, even if we’re not buyers. Whether we’re not buyers now because there’s no value in futures, or ever because we’re too old, we’re still Bordeaux wine enthusiasts, right?

[Musigny 151]

Interesting short article on the Cheval release
https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/ ... BjaQ7LrRGY