Ch. Cos d’Estournel 2009
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Ch. d'Yquem 2008
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For further information or to talk with a member of our team please call +44 (0)20 8439 1522
 

Four of the best wines of the 2011 vintage have been released in the last week, and at prices which suggest the Chateau have thought carefully about pricing the 2011’s at reasonable levels.

For this year’s campaign we will only be recommending wines that we feel meet our investment grade criteria:
 

1) Pontet Canet 2011 @ £725 per 12 – 5 cases available

2) Lynch Bages 2011 @ £725 per 12 – 15 cases available

3) Ch. Margaux 2011 @ £3,750 per 12 – 5 cases available

4) Pavillon Rouge du Margaux 2011 @ £875 per 12 – 5 cases available

5) Château La Mission Haut Brion 2011 @ £2,150 per 12 – 4 cases available

6) Chateau Haut Brion 2011 @ £3,750 per 12 – 5 cases available

7) Chateau Clinet 2011 @ £525 per 12 – 20 cases available

8) Chateau Calon Segur @ £415 per 12 – 15 cases available


Read the full details scores and discuss here

With three quarters of our Bordeaux trip complete, we gave ourselves a well-deserved lie-in before our first tasting of the day at Mouton. Miserable weather greeted us once again as the skies remained overcast and grey with the threat of rain. The last leg of our week consisted of us completing the major left bank Chateaux, rounding off with a select number of right bank properties before heading home to reflect, review and prepare for the anticipated early releases...


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Following two days on the right bank and South Gironde, today was our first day on the left bank and we started at the two most revered Pauillacs, modern and sleek Chateau Latour and traditional, classic Chateau Lafite Rothschild. We then planned our lunch around the UGC at Lagrange where we had the opportunity to taste a range of Pauillac, St Estephe and St Julien wines. Finishing the day off with visits to Ducru Beaucaillou (loving ducru…more on that later), Lynch Bages combined with a cheeky beer in Bages square ending with the two Margaux powerhouses...


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It was an early start for us today and having spoken for weeks about the great French weather that would grace us, it was a more London-esque grey overcast sky that greeted us. We weren’t going to let that dampen our moods however, as we were on our way to Sauternes and Barsac for the morning – a region which had been highlighted by many as the star of the show for 2011. Following our foray to the sweet white region we had an afternoon with the reds and whites of Pessac-Leognan, ending with a planned ‘swing by’ the UGC’s in Saint Emilion and Pomerol...


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An early start for the team on board the 7am flight from Gatwick, saw us touch down in mid morning sun and mild heat. Not quite the aggressive temperatures of last year that flirted with the 30 degree mark for the entirety of the trip, but nothing to complain about! With a relatively easy start on our first day it was into our people carrier, a quick survey of our accommodation, unpack and straight out. Sunglasses on and we were on our way with a few Sat Nav teething problems to our first destination of the week – the Angelus En Primeur tasting...


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After what has been both a positive and hectic start to the year, we already find ourselves at the end of March. Next Monday we are making our annual trip across the channel to Bordeaux for the En Primeur 2011 tastings. Having seen such widespread acclaim cast over both the 2009 and 2010 vintages, early murmurs surrounding the 2011 offering suggest a more difficult year for the winemakers.

Please find attached a copy of our schedule for the week, as you can see there will be no rest for the wicked. We have arranged private tastings at 24 Chateaux as well as 5 UGC visits. It all looks set to be another fantastic trip and a big thank you in advance to Tom Turner, who having done such a sterling job last year will once again be designated driver for the week.


Read the full article and discuss here
 

Source: Liv-ex Blog (02/03/2012)

Upon Parker’s announcement, he commented “What was clear in the tastings from the bottle (and most of the wines except for the first growths and a few other wines were tasted two, three and sometimes even four different times) is the remarkable consistency of the vintage.” This is reflected in the scores, where the eighteen Châteaux attaining the coveted numbers (listed below) are split across both sides of the Gironde and a wide variety of appellations.

Read the full article and discuss here
 

Bordeaux Buzz surrounding Suckling’s 2009 in-bottle scores - 17th February 2012
By Aarash Ghatineh (Senior Portfolio Manager) - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

This week saw James Suckling release his official in-bottle scores for the much heralded Bordeaux 2009 vintage. The internationally acclaimed wine writer has described Bordeaux ’09 as the ‘best ever modern vintage’, awarding a staggering nine Chateaux with the maximum 100pts rating. All First Growth received the 100pts score, with the omission of Mouton Rothschild, which only scored 98pts.

The nine wines given the top accolade are: Ausone, Cos d’Estournel, Haut Brion, Lafite, Lafleur, Latour, Margaux, Montrose and Vieux Château Certan.

Suckling likened the 2009s to the excellent 1989 and historical 1982 vintage, with a further twenty-two Chateaux receiving 98pts. The global fine wine trade is now eagerly anticipating the release of Parker’s in-bottle scores and according to Liv-ex, the preeminent wine critic will publish his scores in the next issue of the Wine Advocate. Given Parker’s recent appraisal of the vintage as ‘one of the greatest vintages of (his) lifetime’, we accurately predict equally impressive, if not higher ratings, prompting investors, collectors and consumers alike to take serious note of this must have vintage. (if they haven’t already!)


Read the full article and discuss here

Fine Wine, recycled paper and the problem with customs in China - 9th February 2012
By Thomas Gearing (Director) - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

Shenzhen has become a hot bed for fine wine smuggling

Despite China becoming one of the world’s biggest importers of wine, problems with the importation of fine wines, which have become the latest focus for the Chinese super-rich, continue to exist. Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region of China, has usurped New York and London in recent times to become the world’s largest fine wine hub as a result of the abolition of import duties. However, with a punitive import tax of 50% applied on fine wine in mainland China, importers and merchants in Hong Kong have looked to alternative methods in order to satisfy demand.

As the Far East has become the big focus of the wine world, stories of Premier Grand Cru Classés being smuggled into mainland China have been as common as consumers drinking Lafite with Coca-Cola and Petrus with Lemonade. It seems despite the many stories importers have favoured smuggling fine wine, predominantly through Shenzhen, which not only is immediately north of Hong Kong but is the third busiest container port in China (after Shanghai and Hong Kong). It has been suggested that the favoured option for smugglers is to conceal expensive wine within containers of recycled paper, something that isn’t liable to tax and which at a larger container port may easily pass through undetected.

Read the full article and discuss here

Fine Wine Market Review 2011 and Outlook 2012 - 13th January 2012
By Thomas Gearing & Aarash Ghatineh - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

Tom Gearing (Director of Cult Wines) looks at the upcoming year for the fine wine market and analyses the factors likely to drive the market in 2012.

Aarash Ghatineh (Senior Portfolio Manager at Cult Wines) reviews 2011 and investigates the big stories, developing trends and key market changes of the year.

Both reports are available to download for free here


Fine Wine Market Review 2011 – Highlights

• Buying trends diversify: The emergence of Super Seconds
• First Growth retreat
• En Primeur 2010: expensive and drawn out
• Parker’s Magical 20
• Winners of 2011 and their outlook in 2012


Fine Wine Market Outlook 2012 - Highlights

• Best buying opportunity since 2009 or normalisation?
• Simply a case of History repeating?
• UPSIDE FACTORS: China, India and Net inflows
• DOWNSIDE: Eurozone problems and China?
• Fine Wine not immune to short term volatility – but still retains an edge over other assets
• For the fine wine market as a whole, our forecast is for 10-20% growth in 2012.
 

Click here to download the 2 full reports and discuss

Do you want a Cellar valuation or have wines for sale? - 26th December 2011
By Thomas Gearing (Director) - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

Here at Cult Wines, we are always interested in taking on Fine and Rare wines. We are also happy to provide an independent valuation of your current holdings.

Cellar Valuation – if you are looking to gain an up to date market value for wines that you currently hold, we are more than happy to provide this service free of charge. Please fill out the form on the main article page, including all details listed and we will send a full valuation over by post and/or email.

Click here for more information, valuation spreadsheet and form

 

The Chateau is named after 19th Century owner Louis Gaspard d’Estournel, whose travels in the Orient influenced the design of the Chateau and cellars, earning him the nickname of the ‘maharajah of St Estèphe’.

During these years, the majority of Cos d’Estournel was exported to equally exotic locations with India being one of the main recipients. The ‘Indian elephant’ is still synonymous with Cos, a statue of which greets you on entrance to the 21st Century incarnation and is also symbolised within the Chateaux branding. Influences from the Orient can still be felt today even though the Chateau and cellars have undergone a major transformation.

Click Here to view the full report
 

Domaine Romanee Conti (DRC) – A Bordeaux Hedge - 21st September 2011
By Tom Turner (Senior Portfolio Manager) - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

In recent months, increased attention has been drawn to the top wines of Burgundy, which have seen prices soar, both on the London Exchange (Liv-ex) and in auctions worldwide.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is leading the trade in Burgundy, accounting for a quarter of all of the region’s trade on the London International Vintners Exchange and in terms of performance for the wider market, Burgundy has been leading the charge. It’s appeal – not least to Asian buyers, who appear to be contributing to the increase in demand – is obvious. DRC is the most iconic fine wine outside Bordeaux, and the only Burgundy producer that possesses similar brand strength to the big names of Bordeaux. It also benefits from a production that provides enough liquidity to gain real market momentum (less than 8,000 cases produced per year across the 8 grand crus), whilst not providing anywhere near the quantities required to satisfy demand. Its rarity is part of its mystique...

Read the rest of the article here
 

Congratulations to Mr. David Howarth who became the first winner of a bottle of Haut Brion 2006 from our prize draw.

We had a large number of entrants over the past few months and we would like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out our survey. Following the success of the first competition we will be running more in the future, so keep checking the website for more information on how you can enter for your chance to win.

I’ll shall take this opportunity to thank your company in respect of the service given to market Investors like myself, with regards to research of the wines, tasting notes and points, market Values and helping to create a portfolio which is well balanced for the future markets.

This and of course the Portfolio Manager! I fortunately have Tom Turner as my Manager, I could go on about him and praise to the top? But NO , because there is nobody Perfect.

My last statement is to thank your company for the clarity created during a trade and the Ongoing operations .

Yours Faithfully

Dave Howarth
South Lakeland, Cumbria
 

Visitors to wineinvestment.org can now access our En Primeur section, which allows people to register their interest in the 2010 vintage as well as read a beginners guide to en primeur, our Bordeaux 2010 report, the critics scores and personal recommendations.

The next 8 weeks of the en primeur campaign are going to be the most action packed with all of the top chateaux expected to release their allocations and prices by the end of June. This whole process will have a massive impact on the investment potential of each and every wine as well as having a knock on effect on the prices of physical vintages and the 2009’s.

If you are still unsure what you want to buy then please refer to this area of the website for the most relevant information and advice in putting together a wish list. By filling out the form to register your interest in Bordeaux 2010, you will be kept up to date with all the latest news and offerings.

The most innovative part of our en primeur coverage is the colour coded critic’s scoring chart we have put together which allows readers to easily compare and contrast the differing scores from the top wine critics – available to view here.

If you would like to speak to one of the team about the 2010 vintage then please call on +44 (0)20 8439 1522.
 

The ratio between off prime and prime vintages – shows the price discrepancy between the top vintages of each chateau against the lesser vintages. In the displayed graphs we have looked at the physical vintages since 2000.

We have rated the 2000, 2003 and 2005 vintages as Prime. The 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007 vintages are Off Prime..

Read full article here

2010 En Primeur

Philip Gearing (Director) and Thomas Gearing (Director) were lucky to be out in Bordeaux during the harvest – and there is no doubt the conditions throughout 2010 will produce a fantastic vintage. The grapes were smaller than usual – however decent rainfall in late September and early October provided a last minute boost to the harvest. I would tentatively suggest that this vintage will be similar to 2003 – in terms of highly concentrated wines – but I feel the weather conditions were not as harsh this year as they were in the summer of 2003, so a vintage that falls between the 2003 and 2005 would be a fair assessment at this stage..

Read full article here

Response to IMF report

Click here to read the IMF Report

Having had the opportunity to look over the IMF’s report comparing the Fine Wine and Oil markets, I think that there are some merits to the assertion that there is a correlation between fine wine and oil, and an increasingly close correlation of both of these "asset classes" to emerging market GDP growth. However, I think their claim that there is a 90% correlation is far too strong. Indeed, there have been many comparisons drawn between the behaviour of Gold and Wine in the past, and if you base wine as a value of gold - then fine wine shows itself as a store of value (Liv-ex research). During the recent recession Gold and Wine have shown remarkably similar recession-proof traits..

Read full article here
 

An apt choice then by the Chateau, as China continues to establish itself as a new territory for Bordeaux fine wine.
It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to the news, although the recent increase in value of the 2008 vintage from £4,500 to £8,000 per case seemed to result from this anticipated news. Bordeaux Wine Investments.

If you are interested in purchasing a case of Mouton Rothschild 2008 please speak with one of our advisors on
+44 (0)208 439 1522
 

Cult Wines Ltd is currently offering a fantastic 2009 Lafite estate parcel for a limited time

The parcel consists of the following:

1 case (12x75cl) Lafite Rothschild 2009 (98-100 pts)
1 case (12x75cl) Carruades de Lafite 2009 (92-94+ pts)
1 case (12x75cl) Duhart Milon Rothschild 2009 (94-96 pts)

The parcel costs a total price of £18,000 (a saving of over £2,000)

If you were to buy this same parcel at current headline UK prices it would cost you £15,500 (Lafite 09), £3,500 (Carruades 09) and £1,200 (Duhart 09) – a total cost of £20,200.

There are only a limited number of these parcels on offer and they are expected to sell out very quickly.
If you are interested in this offer please speak with one of our investment advisors today on +44 (0)208 439 1522

They claimed the symbol (shown above) 'offer(ed) a perfect representation of the slopes of the vineyard and commemorates the launch of our Chinese wine project’. Those of us, who are little more savvy, will realise that this decision may well have been driven by huge importance of the number 8 in Chinese culture and the fact it represents prosperity, wealth and fortune. The number 8 is viewed as such an auspicious number that even being assigned a number with several eights is considered very lucky...

Read full article here
 

• When buying wine for investment you’re expecting the stock to gain in value. With this the case it is more profitable to pay 15% of the purchase value (e.g. 15% of £3,000 = £450) than paying an exit fee of 10-20% in 5 years when the wine is worth £10,000 (e.g. 10% of £10,000 = £1,000)

In summary – make sure you understand the fees and charges you can expect to pay over the term of your investment. Choose an investment strategy that will retain the most profit for you. If the company is not charging any fees ask why? Companies need to make profit, so find out where they’re making it.

6. Buy the Right wine
This is probably the most important and crucial factor. If you don’t buy the right wine in the first place, you don’t stand a chance of making a return on your investment no matter how good the service, charges or price are.

There is no definitive answer as to which wines to buy, but if you keep to a certain guideline you can make sure you are not mis-sold an investment wine. In general, investing in first growth Bordeaux (Lafite, Latour, Mouton, Margaux and Haut Brion) from the best vintages is the most secure way to make a return of 15-20% per annum. By investing in wines with a RPJ score of 94pts+, you can assure there will be a strong secondary market for your wine.

Below is a table (courtesy of liv-ex.com) which ranks the best performing investment wines:

This is by no means a definitive list of wines that will make returns, but what is important is to understand the analysis and reasons behind purchasing any given wine. Your merchant or broker should provide you with detailed analysis and evidence that the wine you are buying has good potential for growth.

If you would like to discuss an investment opportunity in the Fine Wine market, please don’t hesitate to call on
+44 (0)20 8439 1522 and speak with one of our investment team.
 

Cult Wines Reviews - Bordeaux En Primeur 2009 - 27th April 2010

Click here or on the banner above to enquire about 2009 en primeur now

Cult Wines & Wineinvestment.org consists of Oliver Gearing, Philip Gearing (WSET), Thomas Gearing and Aarash Ghatineh. We have many associates including a Master of Wine (only 220 in the world), and trade experts such as Andrew Taylor (retail advisor) and Mark Shuringa - Ditton Wine Traders (En Primeur partner & advisor). We are also trading members of Liv-ex.

We would say that there is a profit to be had from most of the wines we reviewed. The hype for 09 is enormous, the demand impossible, the Asian hub have requested everything available, and we heard from the experts in Bordeaux that the following wines were strong favourites. For those that want to know the three best investments in brief, you will want Lafite Rothschild 2009, Mouton Rothschild 2009 & Latour 2009.

A joint venture based in London now enables wine investors to reserve Lafite Rothschild 2009, Mouton Rothschild 2009 & Latour 2009 in advance.

Christian Moueix, who manages some of the most sort after wineries on the Bordeaux right-bank, believes that mother nature smiled on France – with every major region enjoying a beautiful growing season. ‘I have never seen anything like it in my career, a career spanning back to 1971’.

Most importantly, considering current demand for Lafite and Mouton, reports emanating from Baron de Rothschild are good with winemaker Philippe Dhalluin declaring he has rarely seen fruit as perfect as this year. Scores should be high by RPJ, and the price should rise very quickly, doubling for the very best stock within months very similar to 2005.

Click here to read our wine reviews.

Click here to see photos of our recent trip.
 

1996 – Best back vintage to invest in? - 19th February 2010
By Thomas Gearing (C.O.O) - Cult Wines Ltd - http://www.cultwinesltd.com

In recent times, En Primeur has stolen the limelight when it comes to Bordeaux fine wine investment, because of the phenomenal gains that the 2008 first growths have made since their release. But when it comes to buying physical stock, which year is the best to invest in?

Analysing the methodology of buying fine wine for investment, it seems to point the investor in the direction of one particular vintage:

1) Wines that are high scoring across the board (most importantly 95+pts RPJ score)
2) Have shown a solid track record for growth.
3) Have widespread appeal (First growth – Lafite, Mouton, Latour)
4) Approaching the drinking age
5) Supply decreasing...

Read full article here