Bordeaux 2008: Tasting in 2012
This final report from the 2012 Grand Cru Classé Tasting concerns 2008 Bordeaux. Curiously, I have the sensation that I am looking back in time with this vintage; even though the wines are now barely four years old, the memory of my trip to Bordeaux for the 2008 primeurs, in April 2009, is a very distant one. Even in this short space of time, Bordeaux seems to have changed so much. In the interim we have been blessed (or vexed, depending on your point of view) by two truly great vintages, Parker has dished out more 100-point scores than ever before, and prices have broken new barriers. Whereas it was once only the first growths that seemed so highly priced as to be truly unattainable, many super-seconds and other châteaux with similar aspirations now open with prices once only associated with names like Latour and Lafite. Obviously where the line of unattainability is drawn is personal, and will thus vary from one buyer of Bordeaux to the next, but since the 2008 vintage the release prices of a number of leading châteaux have gone well beyond my own personal limit.
The high prices seem especially inappropriate when we remind ourselves that en primeur purchases are not like other wine purchases, but are in fact interest-free unsecured loans to merchants and châteaux. These speculations should benefit both buyer and vendor, but in current times they seem to favour the latter (by which I mean the châteaux rather than the merchants) much more than the former. And what benefits do remain for the buyer seem to centre around potential profit. Although I am certain many buy highly-priced cases of Pontet-Canet and the like for drinking, I am equally certain that many are purchased by individuals in the hope the price climbs even higher when Parker revises his score two years down the road, hence bringing home a handsome profit. And many cases are bought by trust funds and other wine investment schemes, again looking for profit when the wines are subsequently sold on. Not much of the modern-day en primeur campaign seems to be about providing wines for drinking at a sensible and mildly advantageous price.
