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THE QUALITY OF WINE
What are some factors that may affect the quality of a particular vintage?
Weather
Certainly the most influencing factor affecting a vintage is the weather conditions throughout the year. Of course, these weather conditions will have different affects on the different grape varietals as there are those that are more hardy (such as Cabernet Savignon's tolerance of rain and heat) or delicate (such as Pinot Noir's predisposition to sunburn). In addition, the particular affect of any type of weather can be exaggerated by the soil type of the area (especially considering its overall drain ability). Generally speaking, a sunny, somewhat rainy spring followed by a relatively hot summer with occasional rains is considered a good season in Western Europe.
One of the most important phases is the month preceding the harvest. The average temperature during the last phase of ripening has a large influence on the eventual wine quality due the development of sugar and the decrease in the malic acid present in the grapes although again, the optimal average temperature and the timing necessary for ripening depends on the early or late maturing characteristics of a vine varietal. Producers test the sugar content of the grapes on a daily basis waiting for the perfect harvest moment. However, awaiting this moment carried the enormous risk of rain just before the harvest. Rain can cause the grapes to swell and therefore, dilute the concentration of the grapes juices. Rain can also affect the quality of the grape bunches due to the risk of mold development.
Extreme weather conditions including frost, hail, drought etc. can affect wine production at any point in the wine growing phase. For example, this year's Easter frost in the Tuscany region may prove disastrous for certain producers, while not affecting, or even enhancing the overall quality of other's.
Disease and Producer Policies
The quality of a vintage may also be affected by other factors such as disease and producer policies. The onset of a disease may render the quality of the grape unusable, debilitate the plant or may kill it completely. Producers are always on the lookout for any sign of disease or pestilence. Often these two go hand in hand. Take for example the glassy-winged sharpshooter discovered in California in 1990. This pest can eat up to ten times its weight in an hour, but the problem is not what it eats but what it leaves in it path. This bug is an extremely effective transmitter of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa that has the trick of blocking the water vessels in the vines, killing them within a year or two!
Various producer policies including quality control and raw material quality can of course affect the overall quality of the wine, but these types of policies tend to be more consistent through time. With much more direct effect, the pruning policy of a producer will affect a particular years grape quality. The fewer the clusters of grapes allowed to grow on a single vine, the higher the quality (in terms of sugar concentration, etc) of those grapes. This is the reason that the best producers have an extremely low yield per vine.
Top Bordeaux 2000 en primeur tastings - an extraordinary interest
The tasting season of the Bordeaux 2000 vintage began the last week of March and saw an extraordinary interest from buyers from all over the world. Most chateau hold private tastings for their most important clients, but there are some collectively organized tastings such as that organized by the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux which took place from March 27 to 29. There was approximately a 30% increase in visitors over previous years. Jean-Jacques Bethmann, owner of Château Olivier, which hosted the UCG tasting for the appellations of Graves and Pessac-Léognan was very enthusiastic about the turnout. "We've never seen such a crowd, but it's to be expected. The interest in vintage 2000 is high, and the quality is outstanding."
Excerpts from comments to The Wine Spectator during the tastings:
Wolfhart Wiegmann, Pinot/Weinhandel W. Wiegmann KG, Germany
" My impression is that this will be a very harmonious vintage," says Wiegmann, who runs a retail store and an import business in Nürnberg, Germany. "We also stopped by a tasting at Haut-Brion, and the wine was exceptional -- so far, for me, one of the stars of the vintage."
Céderic Manet, CM Vins - The Wine Supplier, France
"The wines are great. It's a classic vintage," says Céderic Manet, owner of CM Vins - The Wine Supplier, a merchant in Bordeaux. "I've tasted both on the Left Bank and the Right Bank, and I've been really impressed. I've also tasted lesser-known château wines, which have been surprisingly good. The test will be to see how these wines develop in the next 10 years. Will the 2000 vintage stand up to the great vintages of 1961, 1982 and 1945?"
Olivier de Horschitz, Bignens Vins, Switzerland
"Finally Bordeaux producers are making wines that are easier to approach," says Olivier de Horschitz, commercial director of Bignens Vins, in Geneva. "Vintage 2000 is good on both the Right Bank and the Left Bank, but what's important is that producers are adopting a new style and a new approach, with softer tannins and more fruit. Our company sells to a younger generation of wine drinkers, in their 30s, who are not used to hard, aggressive tannins. Bordeaux must think of its future market and make approachable wines."
John Carpenter, Wine House Ltd., United States
Carpenter, president of Wine House Ltd., a San Francisco importer and retailer says, "With the quality of the vintage, there will be a strong level of interest. If this vintage happened last year, there would have been a real buying frenzy. But now it's a little quieter because of what's happening with the American stock market." But he thinks connoisseurs will still be willing to pay more to get the top growths.
James Suckling, Wine Spectator's European Bureau Chief
About the Bordeaux Vintage 2000 : "I now rate it 95-100 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale, and I place it at or above the level of 1982, 1985, 1986, 1995 and certainly 1996 (an overrated year)".
The Premiers crus have still not released their first tranche prices, but are expected to do so any time now. Stay tuned to the WineTip.com site to get your piece of the action! Top
Fingerprinting terroir
Scientists have discovered that it is possible to develop a chemical fingerprint for wines grown from particular regions, hence validating the European notion of terroir. Terroir is described as the combination of characteristics and effects on the soil in which grapes are grown (such as sun exposure, drain ability, soil composition, rainfall, etc) and has been argued most strongly by the French to be the single most important differentiating factor determining the qualities of one wine from another. Scientists have known for some years how to generally determine a wine's origin, but only more recently has it been possible to fingerprint wine producing regions and their wines due to improved analytical instruments and powerful computers.
The commercial advantages of wines originating from certain regions leads unfortunately, to the industry's difficulty of mislabelled product, a problem more common in the United States where most wine growers are not required by law to use grapes originating from a particular field or location. Eventually, national or international registries of soil and wine compositions may be developed to aid the protection of high quality wine product.
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THE VALUE OF WINE
Why do people collect/invest in wine?
Generally speaking, there are many reasons that people collect/invest wine ranging from pure financial speculation (especially common in the UK where capital gains on wine investments are generally exempt from the 40% capital gains tax attributed to other investments!) to an outlet of the cultural finesse acquired after years of following a passion for wine. However, whatever the principle motivation for originally embarking on the path of wine collection/investment, the most common delight associated with this activity is the possibility of financing the personal consumption of very fine wines, something about which no one might complain. In 1996, when Andrew Lloyd Webber auctioned a part of his private wine cellar, he was widely quoted as saying "As a result of this auction, I have effectively been drinking for years the best wines of the world for free!"
So, a bit of advice for those who are interested in collecting/investing in wine:
Remember that the increasing value stems from the presumption that demand exceeds supply. Therefore, generally look for wines with the following conditions
- The Producer must be well known and be capable of generating a consistently high quality product.
- A limited production of a particular wine.
- Current media hype
- Extraordinary vintages
Wines are luxury items. They make us feel good, we enjoy them with food and friends, we enjoy opening a special bottle knowing that only 1,000 similar ever existed. The interesting part is that as time goes by, and more bottles are opened and enjoyed, that bottle in our cellar is increasing in value to someone who would like to have that same experience. At this point, you have a choice: sell it or drink it. So, at the end of the day, it's also worth buying wine that you like to drink!
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What makes wine prices move?
There are 2 main factors that can make a specific wine price increase in the market:
The quality of the vintage In a great vintage top wines can become priceless. For instance today, Chateau Mouton-Rothshild, Margaux, Latour and Cheval Blanc 82 cost approximately 15 times the original price of 16 years ago. Top Tuscan wines from the 97 vintage have more than doubled the price in the first year in the market.
Experts ranking A wine prices often increase when a famous taster such as R. Parker or a prestigious publication such as Wine Spectator publish an outstanding review. For instance, Chateau Lafite 96 got a perfect 100 from Robert Parker and the price more than doubled in one day. The same happened to the SuperTuscan Solaia 97 when Winespectator awarded the Antinori wine as the best of the year worldwide (98 points).
These factors need to be considered together with a lot of others such as: rarity of the wine, economic situation, producers policy, export rate, wine fashion, proven longevity, maturity and news about the producer (i.e.: new owner, new enologist).
A wine price can often increase with a steep curve in the first year. The curve then generally flattens as time passes. If the wine is sold en primeur then the greatest price increase is usually before the wine enters the market.
On the other hand, it is mainly the top wines from good vintages which will benefit from this sharp price increase. Top
Wine Auctions
Until last year auctions where the only secondary market (exchange) for fine and rare wines. More then 100 milion Euro of wine is auctioned every year.
Most of auctions are held in London, Geneve and New York and regard mainly French wines (88% in 96/97) and from old vintages. Nowadays, the number of Italian wines auctioned are increasing rapidly together with the New World wines. The first all-Italian wine auction took place in London un June 2000 by Christies with high value bottles of Barolo, Barbaresco and some Supertuscans hammered over 150 pound a bottle.
Due to higher demand, wine auctions have been organized in Italy as well as the other locations. Recently, Finarte has organized an auction focused on Italian wines. Solaia 97 has been hammered at about 200€ a bottle (hammer price is ex Vat and ex buyer premium), Sassicaia 85 at 500€ a bottle, Sodi di San Nicolò 90 at 750€ for a Magnum.
Top auction prices have always been reached by old vintages due to an extreme rarity of the bottle. A magnum of Chateau Lafite 1811 has been auctioned last year at 39000€, a bottle of Brunello Biondi Santi 1891 at 16000€, a case of Mouton-Rothshild 45 at 112000$. Top
Primeur 2000 Prices
There is a terrific expectation for 2000 Bordeaux due to a great harvest. All the major experts have addressed the last vintage as the best of the decade, if not of the century. In addition to this, there is a premium to own the 2000 as it is the last vintage of the millennium. En Primeur prices are being released during this period (starting in May) even if most of the major French Chateau are still waiting to release their prices. There is a high demand on the market and many wines have already sold out or are being offered at a much higher price than last year. From our research, the average price increase to date has been around 15% compared to the 1999 vintage, but even larger increases are expected on Premiere and Deuxieme Cru wines.
Wine Spectator has been the first to release votes on new Bordeaux (barrel tasting) with 22 wines obtaining 95-100 and 53 wines obtaining 92-94 mark (this is a much higher average vote compared to past years).
Robert Parker is releasing his votes randomly, with the most still to be published. He has a great deal of influence and, for example, Chateau Pichon-Barton tripled its price in one day due to his 99/100 vote.
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