Drink - Victoria Moore gives some tips on wine investments
Published 21 April 2003
Drink - With prices set to fall, it could be the time to invest in a case of 2002 Bordeaux
If anything truly divides wine drinkers, it must be whether they are acquainted with the fine wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Some people see the words "classed growth" and run screaming towards the Shiraz. I can see why. But here is a piece of news that might just change things. It seems the precarious state of the world economy, American antipathy towards the French and the strength of the euro against the dollar are about to drag down the price of 2002 Bordeaux. This is tremendously exciting because, as Paul Milroy, Bordeaux buyer for Berry Bros & Rudd says, it means people might actually start drinking these wines (if not quite yet). Too often they're bought as an investment and only opened for a bonused-up City trader who's showing off and has just put a bottle of champagne through his nose with a straw.
Make no mistake. We are not talking about seeing 2002 Chateau Lafite in Morrison's at £7.99. But Decanter magazine's consultant editor Steven Spurrier reports that prices of the 2002 vintage could drop by 20 per cent. This would mean the best wines - first growths like Latour and Lafite - selling en primeur (in the spring following the vintage, while the wine is still in barrels in France), for around 60 euros a bottle. Some London merchants think the market is so sluggish that prices will have to go even lower (although, given the cussed and complex system of Bordeaux pricing, all this chatter may send them up again).
So what does this mean for someone who likes a good glass of wine, but has so far stopped short of absorbing the information about Bordeaux that will transform them into a fully fledged wine bore? Well, I suggest it might be the moment to pull on your rash pants and, when the wine goes on sale, buy a case. Not a first growth, but a lesser wine. Just think how pleased you will be in ten or so years' time when it is ready to drink. Two years ago, swept up in the excitement about the 2000 vintage, I bought my virgin case of Bordeaux, and it gives me great satisfaction to know that I have 12 bottles of Chateau du Tertre broodily maturing until I pull their corks. Now 2002 is not a great vintage, but the top critics have doled out some fairly decent marks, particularly to the wines on the Left Bank. Margaux (both Chateau and wines from the commune of Margaux) has been singled out for high praise.
Thanks to Withnail and I, Chateau Margaux is the first important wine many of us hear about. My ex-boyfriend named his pet mouse after it. Margaux lived in his pocket and accompanied him to work (Saatchi & Saatchi seems to allow such eccentricities). I took exception to Margaux also sleeping in his bed. If I can transcend that experience and look kindly on the wines from Margaux, then I think those terrorised by Bordeaux's stuffy image should be able to do so as well.
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