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Eglise-Clinet 2024 En Primeur is priced at £177.00 and it is the worst. What an exciting conclusion to this campaign, just when it looked like Canon pulled out all the stops to win Worst Priced 2024 En Primeur award, Eglise-Clinet roars in front. This offer has inspired a much deeper analysis. Buckle up, this note will be a long one.
2021 is 44% Cheaper
2020 is 4% Cheaper
2019 is nearly 8% Cheaper
2017 is 39% Cheaper
2016 is 1% Cheaper
2014 is 54% Cheaper!!!!!
2009 is 1% More Expensive
2008 is 58% Cheaper !!!!
Almost all of these wines, on aggregate, are better rated than 2024. Without question, 2020, 2019, 2016, 2014, 2009 and 2008 were superior Bordeaux vintages than 2024. To price this En Primeur more expensive than 2016 is unconscionable (personal note: tried this vintage recently and it was sublime!). To price this En Primeur only 1% lower than 2009 is insanity.
When vintages like 2014 and 2008 are over 50% cheaper than 2024, something is very wrong with this En Primeur offer. Do not get swayed by "new wine maker, much better wine making, blah blah blah" sales speech. Or even worse, do not fall for the "low yield" scarcity justification for these prices. That is just reinforcing what a bad vintage 2024 actually was. The reality is that these wines were rated and re-rated by wine critics. The same critics also rated 2024. While no one will claim a critic is perfect, making an aggregate comparative analysis yields extremely useful conclusions. Folks, this is not rocket science.
Finally it is worth restating the obvious, En Primeur is a sales exercise with plenty of conflicts of interest to navigate. Every En Primeur campaign tries to sell their wine by talking down previous vintages, do not fall for this. Secondly, the wine supply chain is making a lot of money (Eglise Clinet 2024 Ex-Chateau is €150 (£126.50) and retail buy at £177 equals 40% markup). In addition, they are also getting free working capital. Consumers pay invoice now, producers get paid in full in the Autumn or later.
Employing comparative analysis undermines the entire wine trade sales strategy for Bordeaux En Primeur. This is why it is completely ignored or even disparaged. As repeated on previous emails, En Primeur is not buying wine for consumption, it is a speculative bet on the price. Consumers should only buy En Primeur if they believe there is a deal to be had, exactly how wholesalers approach it. In an industry that openly practices price fixing, consumers are forgiven for approaching all offers with healthy skepticism and empowered by quantitative analysis. These wines will still be available in 3, 5 or 10 years from now. By extrapolating from the price action of the previous 10 campaigns, it is safe to conclude that the future price of 2024 could easily be cheaper than on release.
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**** Please note En Primeur is HIGHLY speculative. This is not buying wine for consumption but making a speculative bet that wine bought now before bottling, will be cheaper than buying the same wine in 5, 10 or 20 years time.
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