2008 BORDEAUX FUTURES

The 2008 vintage from Bordeaux generated far more excitement in the fine wine marketplace than it was ever expected to.  The release of the 2005 vintage is the only futures campaign that generated more interest.  Why is 2008 so special? 

For starters, there had been a great deal of skepticism about the quality of the vintage leading up to the trade tasting in early April.  The spring and summer of 2008 had been cool and damp, with exceptional weather only coming in September and October.  These long warm days at the end of the growing season saved the vintage, but it wasn’t really until the wines were tasted did it become clear how good this vintage actually was.  The April tastings revealed beautiful, fleshy wines with lovely purity and considerable depth.  In short, it has turned out to be a very high quality vintage. 

Second, en primeur pricing is always controversial.  The 2007 vintage was largely over-priced by the chateaux (we purchased only scant quantities of this vintage and declined to offer a 2007 futures program because the wines are relatively weak and are by-and-large over-priced).  After a great deal of hand-wringing, the big guns of Bordeaux released their top wines early at dramatically reduced prices, and they did so prior to the release of Robert Parker’s strong reviews of the vintage and its wines.  Most properties followed the lead of the Medoc’s First Growths and reduced prices on their 2008s.  Numerous properties dropped their price by 40% from 2007. 

Finally, some very big players in the wine industry declined to participate in this year’s buying campaign, leaving allocations of many of the top wines open for others (like us) to grab.  In short, this is a very high quality vintage, at low prices, with a number of very nice opportunities to pick up new allocations.  This is, in short, a buying opportunity unlike any we have seen in recent memory from Bordeaux.

A few words about the retail marketplace for the 2008 vintage.  Certainly there has been a dramatic downturn in the market for expensive wines over the course of the last year or so, and many astute observers will conclude that these wines will be around to purchase on release.  It is in fact unlikely that this vintage will sell-out before the wines are actually released (as nearly happened in 2005).  Rather, the real issue is one of pricing.  Will these prices be around in 2011?  If you look closely at the pricing, you will see that many of the top names are being offered at prices that make similar wines from the United States and elsewhere look foolishly expensive.  Yes, this vintage of Bordeaux makes the rest of the world look expensive!  For once, it is not the other way around.  As the world-wide economy improves, the pressure on these wines is only going to increase. Moreover, many chateau owners decided to sell only a part of their stock at en primeur pricing, hoping that by the time bottling occurs, the economy will support higher prices.  We believe that this combination of factors will make these wines, upon release, available only at considerably higher prices than what you see below.  

Email Bordeaux Futures Inquiries to info@surdyks.com
                                                           
                                           BROWSE 2008 VINTAGE