Received this press release today, and it is worth reprinting in in full...
Wine prices must be set by market, not neighbour
The market must set wine prices, not the neighbouring chateaux, said Guillaume Halley, owner of Bordeaux’s Chateau La Dauphine, in an interview this week.
“Each chateaux should know its own market, they must talk to their clients and to their negociants (wine merchants) and they must stop looking at the prices of their neighbours, ” Halley said.
Halley’s criticism of chateaux pricing policy follows a generally dismal 2007 wine futures* campaign where many chateaux failed to lower their prices enough to interest buyers.
“Only a few chateaux like Talbot, Beychevelle, Leoville Barton and Pavie Macquin really managed to set their prices in accordance with the market,” Halley said.
“Yes, they might lose a bit of money one year, but what they gain is a reputation for being good wines that have a reasonable pricing policy. And that counts for a lot.”
“The fact that negociants were forced to sell 2007 wines at less than the recommended retail price (the price, set by chateaux owners, at which Bordeaux negociants are expected to sell to wholesale buyers) is a clear signal of pricing gone wrong.”
Halley, who bought Chateau La Dauphine in Bordeaux’s Fronsac area in 2000, is also the wine buyer for his Champion supermarket in Bordeaux.
This year Halley, who believes many Bordeaux producers still need to come to terms with the fact that wine is not above simple market forces, continued to stand by his own policies, lowering the ex-chateau price for the 2007 Chateau La Dauphine vintage from 7.40 euro for the 2006 vintage en primeur, to 7.10 euro per bottle for the 2007 vintage.
www.chateau-dauphine.com.
* Bordeaux wine futures, or primeurs, are wines that are sold direct from the barrel, two years prior to bottling and retail sales.
07/07/08 @ 15:30