Will good French wines become completely unaffordable?

[RDMcG]

The first growth Bordeaux are already the preserve of the extremely wealthy, and demand from the new economies is seemingly endless. The volume stuff at the bottom will not be affected, but I worry that the wines in the middle will also go crazy. Already, some of the previously unfashionable wines like good Hermitages have reached much higher prices, and the trend is spreading. However, Bordeaux is a special case, and I am no optimistic. Of course there are lots of other wines, but its sad to see wine I used to buy in my youth becoming like gold.
The article below seems like the beginning of a trend. I have no objection to the fact that wine is now a global market, and people who have the money have every right to spend it. My selfish concern is that the days of good French Bordeaux at reasonable prices may be slowly coming to a close.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15452362

[Le TVR]

I think you need to separate between what is actually good and what is a 'good label'.
There are a lot of minor chateaux that have made significant investment and improvement to their output and there are some real bargains to be found in the 5 - 10 euro bracket. I can think of several Cru Bourgeois that I would rate higher than quite a few famous labels. I just hope that they don't find themselves listed in any guide like Parkers and I can go on enjoying them at the current prices.

[ettore]

I hope so because I bought a load of 2010 en primeur Bordeaux (mainly second and third growth).

Fingers crossed ( I prefer Burgundy!)

[Mobile Chicane]

Even at the 'volume' end, French wine becomes increasingly more difficult to justify buying.

I like burgundy and struggle to find anything drinkable in a UK supermarket for less than £15 a bottle.

[Balmoral Green]

It was mentioned on here a few months back that LIDL do a half decent St Emilion and Cote du Rhone at £3.79p a bottle, and there was much agreement. Let it breathe or stick it in a decanter and it is good at twice the price. IMO certainly better than many a new world thick gloopy generic at up to a tenner.

Of course, I understand that the OP is talking about the other end of the scale completely

Edited by Balmoral Green on Thursday 27th October 12:49

[Davey S2]

Le TVR said:

I think you need to separate between what is actually good and what is a 'good label'.

I think you have to differentiate between wine which is bought as an investment and wine which is bought to drink.

Very few people will blow £35K on a case of Petrus with the intention of actually opening it and drinking. Wines like these will never have a value celing. They will just go up in line with demand.

With regard to lower level wines these will have a celing as they dont have the reputation or quality to be good investments but are nice to drink. There has to be a limit on how much people will pay for a wine to actually drink which will dictate the market price IMO.

As said there are a lot of good new producers selling good wine at affordable prices (£20 - £50)

[RDMcG]

Balmoral Green said:

It was mentioned on here a few months back that LIDL do a half decent St Emilion and Cote du Rhone at £3.79p a bottle, and there was much agreement. Let it breathe or stick it in a decanter and it is good at twice the price. IMO certainly better than many a new world thick gloopy generic at up to a tenner.

Of course, I understand that the OP is talking about the other end of the scale completely

Edited by Balmoral Green on Thursday 27th October 12:49

Not really...I have long stopped buying at the prices they have for the first growths or top burgundies.. ( when I was very young I bought a bottle of DRC burgundy , a 1961 for sixteen quid)......it was almost a week's wages, admittedly. I am more concerned at the (say) third growth level, or that the trend will spread.. As it is, the better wines from places like the Northern Rhone which used to be very cheap have gotten very expensive indeed. I used to buy stuff like Chapoutier Hermitage for a pittance. No longer, sadly.

[zcacogp]

Mobile Chicane said:

Even at the 'volume' end, French wine becomes increasingly more difficult to justify buying.

I like burgundy and struggle to find anything drinkable in a UK supermarket for less than £15 a bottle.

Exactly my experience.


Oli.

[LooneyTunes]

ettore said:

I hope so because I bought a load of 2010 en primeur Bordeaux (mainly second and third growth).

Brave man!

Aside from a very large format bottle as a wedding gift for friends, 2010 was the first year in a long time that I didn't buy any bdx en primeur.

The bdx market looks really frothy right now and one has to question, given the very small 1st tranches, just how much has actually been a) released; and b) sold - especially given the recent price rises.

There are some parts of bdx - especially with respect to the whites - where I expect to see significant falls in price.

I'll continue to keep buying enP from other regions (although still have concerns about premox issues with white burgs) - although I do fear that as new markets begin to mature, there may be those who start to explore these other regions and impact price as a result.

Of course, to temper that, when I started buying enP there were many who said "too expensive, not buying anymore" and the market continued to steam ahead!

At the end of the day though, "unaffordable" is subjective. I'm now firmly in the camp that says "drink less, but drink better" so whilst it seems to some that I spend a lot on wine, most weeks I actually spend less than those who can really put the beer away.