Two billion dollar Bordeaux vintage

The 2010 vintage in Bordeaux is likely to be as lucrative as its predecessor, but Liv-ex wonders whether is it as worthy of investment.

With the region’s 24 top châteaux (Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables Index) producing around 750,000 cases of wine in 2010 – compared to 800,000 in 2009 – and suggestions that the 2010s will be released at broadly the same price as the previous vintage, Liv-ex has calculated that these properties have produced more than £1.25 billion of wine (if only 50% of production is used for the grands vins).

When the production of the other top châteaux is included, this year’s en primeur campaign will total over £1.5bn, which, Liv-ex says, is four times as much as the 2008 campaign and more than twice the size of the 2005 campaign.

However, merchants must convince their customers who spent heavily on 2009 to buy the 2010s, despite the fact few of the 2009s have shown substantial price increases since release.

For this reason, the fine wine exchange calls into question the wisdom of buying into another expensive, young vintage.

For more analysis on the production and pricing of the 2010 vintage see the upcoming May issue of the drinks business.

Patrick Schmitt, 21.04.2011