This year we must buy burgundy
“Getting bottles of things that are very difficult to find later on and buying them at the best price.” These are, in the words of Quim Vila, owner of Vila Viniteca, the reasons that lead professionals and enthusiasts (with means) in the world of wine to visit the fair that the distributor, one of the most important in Spain, organizes annually to present the new vintages of great labels, which ha
On Tuesday the 17th, Vila brought his 2024 vintage portfolio to Madrid, at an event attended by some of the most important names in the national wine scene, such as Peter Sisseck, Álvaro Palacios, Benjamín Romeo, Borja Pérez, Daniel Landi or Sara Pérez to personally present his 2024 vintage wines, most of which will not be available until 2027.
A system that originated in Bordeaux over 100 years ago, when négociants selected barrels at the châteaux and, until the 1960s, bought them to bottle at their destination. The main requirement, explains Vila, is “to have international demand, on a global level. If in Spain you have to buy it in advance and it sells out, and then you can find it physically in Germany, the system breaks down.”
In addition to great Spanish wines, Vila Viniteca also distributes some of the finest Bordeaux wines, such as Lafitte, Mouton, Cos d'Estournel, Haut Brion, and Latour. And speaking of these, Vila makes a bold statement: “Now is the time to buy Bordeaux wine.” They explain: “Prices have dropped between 20 and 42 percent compared to last year. And what about compared to two years ago? Lafitte 24 (336 euros) costs half as much as Lafitte 22; it's at the price it was 10 years ago.”
“I don’t know if these prices will ever be repeated. Right now, there are excellent Bordeaux wines in advance for 10 and 15 euros, and others between 500 and 700. It’s impossible to know if they will appreciate in value between now and 2027: there might be another war or another crash and they won’t, or they might even depreciate, or perhaps the world will be fixed in two months and the good life will return and prices will rise again. We can’t predict it.”
“It’s all due to the global situation,” he continues. “Bordeaux is the barometer of the global economy. Even poor vintages, like 1997, used to sell for high prices because prices don’t always reflect the quality of the year. This year prices have fallen because the market wasn’t willing to buy; demand is down while supply remains the same. We’ll see what happens next year, because the big producers aren’t having any problems, but the small and medium-sized ones have sold very little.”
And what prices are we talking about? Apart from the aforementioned Lafitte at 336, we find Chateau Margaux at 322, Cos d'Esoturnel at 99, Chateau Leoville Les Cases at 112.90, Haut Brion at 280, and Chateau Ausone at 365. A bargain (they're still not cheap, but a bargain nonetheless).
Regarding Spanish wines, the situation is a bit more stable. “The wineries here haven't raised prices, except for two that have applied the CPI because they do it every year, but they haven't lowered them either. Why? Because there are only 15 wineries in Spain that sell directly to the producers, and the wines of Benjamín Romeo, Peter Sisseck, Sara Pérez, or Álvaro Palacios sell themselves. In France, there are 150 châteaux competing with each other.”
Contador 24 is priced at 241.60, Pingus at 851, Clos Martinet at 35.80 and Quiñón de Valmira at 290. Precisely, the 2023 vintage of this Rioja is the one that has appreciated the most compared to the previous year, when it was also selling for 290 and currently it is around 600 “because it has received 100 Parker points and because there is no more, practically everything was sold.”
We'll have to wait a while to find out which of the 2024 wines will appreciate the most. If they do at all…