My Article: VinExpo and Prices for Bordeaux 2010

I have never seen so many worried faces on wine merchants than in the last few days in Bordeaux during VinExpo, and I have been coming to France’s premier wine region for nearly three decades.

It’s that look of helplessness. They just don’t know if they can sell most 2010 Bordeaux futures at the prices they are being offered. Most of the top names are being sold anywhere from 10 to 35 percent more than 2009.

“We have spoken to many of our private customers – and they are affluent businessman and professionals – and they simply are saying that they are not interested at these high prices,” said a UK-based wine merchant with offices also in the United States and Hong Kong.

As one Bordeaux wine merchant said last night during the international press dinner at Haut-Brion, hosted by the association of chateaux in the 1855 classification: “I can’t understand why chateau didn’t simply price their 2010s at the same level as 2009. It would have all sold without any problem. But they were more worried about the prices that their neighbors were selling at, than what prices the market would bear.”