FT.COM/MAGAZINE OCTOBER19/202019 41
•CôtesduRhônerouge
•Bordeaux crus
bourgeois and the like
•Loirewhites,especially
Muscadet
•Beaujolais
•Alto Piemonte
•Barbaresco•AltoAdige
•Germanwhites
•Greece
•Portugal
•Spanish Garnacha
•SouthAfrica
•ChileH
aveyou noticed how
expensive wine is
becoming?For thoseof
us in Brexit-torn Britain,
it mightbe tem ptingto blame
it on thedecline of thepound,
particularlysincesomuch ofthe
winewe import comes from the
eurozone. But wine-price inflation
is aworldwidephenomenon,
and it appliestowinesfromthe
bottom to the top of the scale.
In the past fewyears –thanks to
that plummetingpound, successive
duty increasesand, significantly,
the factthat the British wine
market has at last startedto
shrink–evenUKsupermarket
priceshavebeenescalating. The
big retailers need to maintain
turnover, andthe £5bottle has
becomeadistant memory for
those who want their wine to have
any character; £8 oreven £10
has become the new normal.
With notableexceptions–the
Germans and Dutch,for example
–other wine drinkers tend to
be much lesspenny-pinching
than us Brits.Bycontrast, it can
seem as thoughcertain Chinese
and US buyers actively seek out
high price tags onbottles. Until
recently, salesweresoaring in
both countries, thoughvolume
salesare slowing down now.
This doesn’tseemtobeputting
any sort of brakeonprice risesat
the top end of the scale, however.
Youonlyhavetolookatthe
remorseless risesof the Bordeaux
first growths,emblematictrophy
winesthat can easilycost £500 a
bottle. Theyhavebeenactively
sold as luxury goods. And, just like
the LVMH stablemates of some of
them (notably Ch Cheval Blanc
and Ch d’Yquem), producers are
busytryingtoforge directlinks
with the end buyer rather than
continuing torely on Bordeaux’s
many-linked distribution chain.
Nowthat Burgundy has become
the height of fashion, theregion’s
mostreveredwines–grands crus
from the top-drawerproducers–haveleapfroggedBordeaux
first-growth pricesint he past
few years.Abottle ofDomaine
ArmandRousseau’s Chambertin,
for example,would costafour-
figuresum –exceptthat itwould
rarelybeoffered by the single
bottle. Itwould much morelikely
be tradedbythe stratospherically
pricedcase on the fine-winemerry-
go-round,escalating withevery
deal,perhaps nevertobedrunk.
This price inflation has
percolatedright down the
Burgundian hierarchy.Atl east
one London fine-wineimporter
blamesthe internet.Speaking off
the recordfor fear of losing his
precious allocations,he told me:
“The problem is that theycanseewhat their winesare selling
for alloverthe world now, and
theywant abigger shareofi t.”
The days when producers added
amodes tpercentage to their
production costs arelong gone.
Acrucialfactor in all this
ambitious pricing is thatnowadays
the number–and wealth –of
people keen to buy famous wines
is considerablygreaterthan it was
even 20years ago.Aproducer
withareputation knows that if
abudget-conscious British or
Americanbuyer snubs their trophy
wine, therewill be acolle ctor in
Asia,Russia or Brazil who will
be only tooglad to takeupthe
slack. And theywill probably
open rather than hoard it.
The succession of short vintages
(with lowyields) in Burgundythis
decadehas coincidedwith arapid
rise in demand. With not enough
Burgundytogoround, thebetter-
known producers in, say, the
Rhône and fashionable parts▶Winesthat seem underpriced
–for now‘Trophywinescan
easil ycost£500abottle.
Theyhavebeenactively
soldasluxur ygoods’Raisingyourglass
Jancis
Robinson
Wine
Forglobal prices, see
wine-searcher.com.
Youcould also try
searchingforGV(good
value)inthe textof the
175,000tasting notes
on the PurplePagesof
JancisRobinson.comAs imaginedbyLeon Edler