Merlot is well-adapted to moderate climates and prefers hot summers. However, it is less adapted to early spring frosts, mostly due to its thin skin.
Merlot grapes are small and black. They are characterized by a very dark color and fine density. The flavors are those of red berries (strawberry, raspberry, cherry and currant). With age, the flavors change to prune, spices, leather and undergrowth.

In the mouth, Merlot is characterized by supple tanins, strong taste, rather high alcohol content and dark color.
Merlot wine is a near-perfect red wine, a structured one, revealing much complexity and rich maturing capacity. It makes a good mix with cabernet sauvignon. You can find it in multiple fine wines of Bordeaux.

Thanks to its flexibility, Merlot grows in Languedoc, as well as in Northern America, Chili, Italy and Central Europe.
In France it occupies the surface of 115000 hectares, compared to 25000 in 1968.
Merlot is a grape variety which is used only for wine production.

L’article Merlot est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

Meanwhile, the first London Sotheby’s wine auction on September 17 and 18, yielded the sum of £1,65 million after an estimation between £1,3 and £1,6 million.
The most exceptional lot was a lot of two Pétrus 1945 magnums, sold £47000, considerably above its estimation: £18000 – 24000.
The second one was a lot of 5 La Tache magnums, sold at one hell of a price – £44650, or three times the estimate (£12000 – 15000).

In Hong Kong, the Acker Merall auction proves one more time the desire of Chinese and Hong Kong collectors to own the best wines in the world – French Grand Crus.

 (source picture: copyright Sotheby’s)

L’article DRC and Pétrus top the auction lists est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

The wine

Innovative in many respects, the wine from the Château le Pin is one of the first Bordeaux Grand crus to use the malolactic fermentation in totally new oak casks. It’s equally one of the first “garage wines”, these marvelous wines, produced in small quantities and sold at unearthly prices. All these elements probably explain the exotic, richness and the extremely well structured character of the Château le Pin wines. This wine forms part of the great Pomerols and one of the most seductive ones of the Bordeaux area. The varieties used are merlot noir (92%) and cabernet franc (8%).

Extremely popular in Japan, Alexandre Thienpont compares it to La Tache with regards to its velvety texture and rich floral aroma; it can be drunk quiet young, with smooth and mellow tannins, almost from the beginning. But, it will mature exceptionally well, something that many critics underestimated in the beginning.

Suggestions

If you are able to purchase it, get your hands on the 2001 vintage. “Very certainly the best value for money deal on the market £ 9,000 (15 000$) for a case of six bottles, compared to the £ 16,000 (27 400$) for the 2000 vintage.
Le Pin, with its small scale and the great talent of its winemaker, will always produce extremely good wines in the small millesimes”.
A brand new cellar, conceived by the famous Belgian architects Robbrecht & Daem, was finished in 2012.

The winemakers

Jacques Thienpont and Fiona Morrison, form one of the most powerful couples in the world of wines. Since their marriage in 1997, they share their time between Belgium where they exploit the family business, and their cellar in France. Fiona is an expert in wines, writer, and a consultant for Christies and creates wine menus for restaurants. Even though Jacques and Fiona are often associated to the Le Pin domain, one must underline the work done by Alexandre Thienpont, owner of the Vieux Château Certan and of a sixth of the parts of Le Pin. He’s the man responsible for the vines and their maintenance throughout the year.

What critics are saying

It will take a while to find a critic that will speak negatively about Château Le Pin. Sa far as Parker points are concerned, it seems to float around the 95 point and more, levels, even if in the 1998 and 2009 vintages they reached perfection with 100 points. According the Traders Bordelais, it’s one of the most solid investments. For a case of 6 bought in 2000 (96 points, 12,790$), it’ll cost you now approximately 59,100$. In other words a 400% increase. The prices for Le Pin are maintaining themselves much better than other Bordeaux icons, especially those of the left bank. The production is so confidential, that it is less sensitive to market fluctuations.
An obsession for quality, for instance, there was not a 2003 vintage after a droughty summer, and in 2013 only three barrels where produced. Only 40% of the production is sold in Bordeaux, the rest is sold directly to wine merchants in the countries of distribution.

L’article Le Pin: Could this be the ultime collector wine? est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

The sale of the SVEAAS collection reached the sum of 6 800 000 Dollars.
Here below, you will find the first ten, classified by: (name, vintage, sales price, buyer)

– Château Mouton Rothschild 1986, 30×12 bottles, 
USD 288 000 (198 621 €), Europe

– Hermitage La Chapelle, Paul Jaboulet Aîné 1961, 12 bottles, 
 USD 252 000 (173 793€), Europe

– Château d’Yquem 1945, 12 bottles, 
 USD 132 000 (91 034 €), Europe

– Château Latour 1945, 12 bottles,
 USD 126 000 (86 897€), Asia

– Château Mouton Rothschild 1945, 12 bottles, 
USD 120 000 (82 759€), Asia

– La Tâche, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1978, 12 bottles, 
 USD 78 000 (53 793€), Asia

– Romanée-Conti, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1991, 12 bottles, 
 USD 78 000 (53 793€), Asia

– Romanée-Conti, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1993, 12 bottles, 
USD 78 000 (. 53 793€), Asia

– Château Cheval Blanc 1921, 12 bottles, 
 USD 72 000 (49 655€), Europe

– Château Latour 1961, 12 bottles, 
USD 66 000 (45 517€), Europe

A case of 12 bottles of Cheval Blanc from the last century was auctioned by Christie’s in Paris the 6^th of December 2013, this exceptional vintage hit the ceiling; 131.600€ the case of twelve bottles of 1947 Cheval Blanc, it was on this last auction that fell Christie’s auctioneers hammer, setting a new record for this class of product.
Michael Ganne, director of Christie’s department of fine wines, was pleased with the excellent results of this sale, which got together bidders from sixteen countries. A 1989 Pétrus Jéroboam went for 28.200€, at the same time a lot of 9 bottles of this same wine was sold for 23.500€.

A record sale for Vosne-Romanée: Hong Kong loves the wines from Burgundy.

On the tenth of February of this year, took place at Christie’s in Hon Kong the sale of “Fine and Rare wines from Henri Jayer’s private cellar”. The total amount climbed to a sum of 7 million Euros, with a record auction for 12 bottles of 1985 vintage Premier crus “Cros Parantoux” Vosne-Romanée that went for 200.000€. CharlesCurtis, director of the “Asian wine market”, welcomed the sale, declaring: “These record sales, confirm the passion of our Asian clients for Burgundy wines, and Hong Kong’s position as the dominant market place for rare wines”.

27% value increase of Burgundy wines in the Beaune sale.

The 153^rd sale at the Hospices de Beaune under Christie’s auspices, registered a new and important increase of 27,12% in the rates of Burgundy wines. The prices of the reds jumped by 28% thereby doubling the rates. Whites have progressed by 20%. The small harvest of 2013 and its gustative quality, explain this strong progression.  The buyer Ms. Yan Hong Cao, participating for the third time at the Hospice de Beaune sales, is the owner of a chain of shops, tea plantations and jade mines in the south east of China. She acquired for the sum of 131.000€ a 456 liter barrel of Meursault Genevrieres premiers crus, cuvee Phillipe Le Bon, she declared in Chinese that she appreciated the wines from Burgundy. In total this auction has reached the sum of 5,765 million Euros, beating the 2012 edition record of (5,217 million Euros).  “The Burgundy pinot noir has become a rare wine in 2013” explained Roland Masse, manager of the Hospices de Beaune wine estate. “The autumnal weather of this spring added to this, a hailstorm episode in July, has decimated many a vineyard in the Côte de Beaune. 2013 is rare in quantity, but extraordinary due to some small precious nuggets.

“Record sale at Christie’s: 77.000 Euros for a case of wine. A case of French wine has reached the record sum of 109 350 Swiss Francs (77 469 Euros).

An anonymous private Asian buyer has bought a case of six bottles of Hermitage la Chapelle 1961, in these auctions by Christies, exceeding largely the estimates.

Several magnificent Burgundy vintages where put up for sale, such as a Henri Jayer 1990 Vosne-Romanée estimated between 45 000 and 50 000 € or a 1799 Bordeaux Château Laffite estimated between 15 000 and 20 000€.

Around the world, the sales of wines by auction have almost doubled between 2009 and 2010, going from 233 million $ to 408 million $. The 7 most important auction firms in the world (ordered by the turnover realized in wine sales):

–       Acker worldwide-

–       Sotheby’s worldwide-

–       Christies worldwide-

–       Zachys worldwide-

–       Hart Davis Hart Chicago-

–       Spectrum-

–       Bonhams.

The five most sold Bordeaux reds or (Blue chip wines as they are known), in other words, the most reliable values are:

Mouton-Rothschild 1982

–       Mouton-Rothschild 1986-

–       Château Lafite 1996-

–       Château Lafite 1982-

–       Mouton-Rothschild 1995.

$232.692 for a Château Lafite 1869 (Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Oct. 2010)
. 
$310.700 for a jeroboam of Mouton Rothschild 1945 (Sotheby’s New York, Feb. 2007)
. 
$1.051.600 for 50 cases of (75 cl) Mouton Rothschild 1982 (Sotheby’s New York, Jan. 2006). 
Romanée-Conti 1990: $20.211 (New York), $13.452 (Hong Kong), $11.850 (Chicago). 
Pétrus 1982: $4.628 (NY), $5.860 (HK), $2.553 (London), $3.835 (Chicago)
Cheval-Blanc 2000: $1.208 (NY), $1.469 (HK), $1.171 (London), $922 (Chicago)

In 2011 a new record was attained! A château d’Yquem 1811 (from the Napoleonic period), became the world’s most expensive white wine, 85 000€, this record was achieved at an exceptional auction at the Ritz hotel in London in July 2011.

It’s a case of Pétrus 1961that pegged the record price: estimated between 50 000$ and 90 000$ (36 000€ and 65 000€), it was finally sold for 144 000$ (104 200€), a price never before reached by a case of Pommerol in an auction.

Other lots where sold at extremely high prices, such as these 11 bottles of Pétrus sold for 90 000$ (65 000€) to a professional European buyer or a case of Château Lafite 1982 sold for 50 400$ (36 400€) to a private Asian buyer. On this subject, Charles Antin, a specialist for Christie’s in North America declared, “The sale of great and rare wines organized by Christie’s in New York last weekend, has once again proved the extraordinary solidity of the wine auction market. The total turnover has exceeded 2 000 000 $ (1 450 000€). A lot of 12 bottles of Château Pétrus 1961 was the object of the highest bid, with 144 000$ (104 200€), this being the highest price ever reached by a case of Pétrus in an auction”.

“We are also extremely happy with the results of the excellent selection of wines, coming directly from the Marchesi Antinory cellars. All the goods where sold at a 150% rate, above the highest estimates, this being once more proof of the undeniable influence of the wine’s origins on the prices”.

On Saturday 29^th of October, 99% of the lots at this auction found a buyer, sold for 98% of the realized value, in other words, a total of 2 105 340$ (1 523 840€).

In a two-day auction at Sotheby’s of London, which proposed wines from “an exceptional private collection” these attained a total sum of 1 870 682 £ (2 171 735 €) originally estimated before the auction at 2 115 960 £ (2 456 270 €).

It is a case of Château Lafite 1986 which gave the highest sale, going for 13 225 £ (15 350 €). Stephen Mould, Sotheby’s European wine director, declared regarding this auction: “ The rarest vintages of Bordeaux Premiers Grand crus have overreached the highest estimates, and the Château Haut-Brion had a lot of success in all the formats”.

“At the end of the first day, the super second wines had been literally overrun and they had all been sold. This tendency was confirmed the following day. The Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ducru-Beaucaillou et Palmer, for example, where actively bought by phone and through internet. It is the Château Cheval Blanc that outshone on the Rive Droite. As far as the Pomerol is concerned, the price of the majority of the vintages of the Château Gazin where sold well above the highest estimates”.

This weekend, two auctions, respectively created by Acker Merral& Condit and Christie’s, have again gone on to break more records. The first one, over a two day period in Hon Kong realized by Acker Merrit & Condit, billed almost 8,7 million Euros. Amongst the important lots one finds two cases of 1988 Romanée-Conti, being adjudicated for 74 551 Euros each, eight bottles from the Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, sold for 48.234 Euros and a case of Château Lafleur 1982 gone for 39.467 Euros. The second sale hosted by Christie’s on the 27^th of Mai, was dedicated to Chateau Latour, after a real 8 hour marathon, the auction collected almost 7,76 million Dollars, the star of the event being a 6 liter bottle (Imperial) of Château Latour 1961 sold for 135 000 £ (approx. 155 740 Euros). It is to be noted that of the 392 lots presented 95%, went for, well above the highest estimates.

In 2011 a new record was attained! A château d’Yquem 1811 (from the Napoleonic period), becoming the world’s most expensive white wine, 85 000€, this record was achieved at an exceptional auction at the Ritz hotel in London in July 2011.

The preceding record for a white wine was held by a 1787 Château d’Yquem Sauternes, issued from the same vineyard as the 1811 vintage and costs approximately 60.000 Dollars a bottle. A 1947 Cheval Blanc holds the record for the most expensive bottle, it’s a red wine sold by Christie’s of Geneva, last November for 304.375 Dollars.

The famous Château Cheval Blanc sold through Christie’s in Hong Kong, the bottles came directly from their cellars. This totaled 220 lots, proposed to the public, these being extremely rare since they where in unusual formats. The origin of the bottles directly from the château as well as the atypical formats pushed the high estimates over the wall. 70% of the bottles found a buyer exceeding the expert’s estimates for a total of 1,1 millions Euros. The masterpiece of the sale was a nabuchodonosor of 1998 Cheval Blanc, sold for 34 551 dollars, that’s almost 26 000 Euros. A magnum of 1936 Château Cheval Blanc found a buyer for 10 208 Dollars that’s almost 7 500 Euros, a double magnum of 1974 reached 7 852 Dollars (almost 5 800 Euros) and a 2004 Melchior (equivalent to 18 Liters) reached the sum of 10 993 Dollars  (almost 8 100 Euros). The notoriety of the château stimulated the auction to these incredible levels. This list is not exhaustive, and could fill several chapters if we took the time to present all the results of auctions of Grand crus around the world. But beware; only grand Crus can hope to reach these prices.

It is imperative to remember that investing in Grand Crus isn’t to be undertaken lightly, you have to choose with care how and with whom you operate, otherwise the critics might be right!

L’article The grand crus record placements of all time est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

“Prudent-man” investments such as:

–       The government savings account, with a virtually zero return, but at least guarantees that you won’t loose money, however you’re guaranteed not to earn any.

–       Life insurance with a promising return (around 2,6% before income tax) and which the government is constantly doing or undoing the rights that are normally due.

–       Real estate a hazardous returns that could be of 5% over a 15 to 20 year period, with an ocean of difficulties.

–       The stock exchange where everything goes well or wrong, where you risk at all moments a total loss, lets not talk about safe have values such as gold, safe havens for whom? If it’s not by the great an wealthy, that do or undo the rates, cheating outrageously, without anyone being able to intervene.

What’s left? You might ask, well, all is possible as long as you totally diversify, and that you turn to tangible assets.

There are several, such as art, requiring a rather large initial investment, collection cars difficult to approach, forests, again over a long period, and then there is the one that retained all our attention, “THE WINE”.

Investing in wine is affordable by all. No need to have 100 000 Euros in order to have a good return; wine is affordable to all purses and offers to each and everyone the privilege of constituting a cellar according to one’s investment capacity.
However, investing in wine is above all a purely financial placement, which can only meet your profitability expectations only through classified Grands Crus or prestige wines, and never second-class wines.

The “wine” investment is extremely accessible and without unnecessary regulatory constraints, that you can manage as a regular stock portfolio. Nevertheless you must keep in mind that it is better to go through specialized firms, that will be perfectly transparent in their contracts, guaranteeing the optimal storage of your wine in specifically adapted emplacements for wine custody under custom authority, in other words tax free. Again one must diversify, even in wines, don’t be 100% Bordeaux that would be a fundamental mistake: one only has to look at the numbers and the richness of the different terroirs of France to see that the biggest Grand Crus are not only from the Bordeaux region, far from it, but that the Burgundy area is a larger provider.

If you should wish to invest in your own cellar, do it, but guarantee yourself that your wines are perfectly stored, since at the moment of the resale you will have to furnish the guarantees of an optimal conservation, otherwise all that’s left is to drink it yourself which could be worse.
Quick and extremely easy to put in place, your investment can be done on-line, here again with a specialized firm. It’s easy to compare the different offers of the different professional in the field of wines, take your time but don’t pass up the good opportunities since they never last a long time in this, extremely attractive market.

We recommend European millésimes, for the qualities of which, mention was made in this article.
A privileged welcome, clear and precise explanations, customer care, guaranteed storage, buying and re-sales, and finally a service that one can expect from a professional in financial investments in such a particular field as that of the wine market.

L’article PRIVILEGED SUMMER est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

For a certain number of persons, 2013 should be a good vintage, having had a cold rainy spring season, hailstorms in summer and the harvest, disturbed by the bad weather. Nevertheless this vintage should be satisfactory, low in alcohol levels as well as presenting altogether a well-balanced wine.
But for others, due to an insufficient quality, the harvest will not be issued under their labels.
Robert Parker will not give his notes until later, this will perhaps bring everyone back to the real quality for price concepts!
On the world market, mainly Americans and Chinese have declared in not being interested by this vintage. Bluff or real intentions, the result should be apparent very quickly through the prices.
Some owners have already offered their wines to merchants, without waiting for the notes, preferring to play on the timing, and playing the European market card.
Corridor gossip or should one say, gossip from the Garonne riverside docks, announce a price reduction of 20 to 30%
Stay tuned.
The Bordeaux wine region is a bit like the French « Dallas » with its merciless universe…

L’article The primeurs Grands Crus of 2013 from Bordeaux est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

Let’s bring these figures to a more concrete scale: China has 1.351 billion people against 65.7 million for France.

Let us now calculate: for China, 155 million cases for 1,351billion inhabitants, that means about 0.11 cases per capita. For France, 150 million cases for 65.7 million people, that is 2.28 cases per capita.

So on average, the French still consume more than twenty times the quantity of red wine than the Chinese. We are therefore far from being dethroned by this country, 15 years ago, China knew nothing about wine, and wine consumption in general was zero (0%), yes you heard right, zero! It was only around 2005 that the Chinese really did start getting interested in Bordeaux wines hereby causing the price spikes of the latter.

Without being chauvinistic, France, the country of wine history, with its incomparable wine regions and its Grand Crus delighting the many aficionados since many a year hasn’t said her last word and will keep her place on the throne.

L’article THE CHINESE DRINK MORE RED WINE THAN THE FRENCH… ALL IS RELATIVE est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.

After a very serious study issued from a comparison of 30,000 worldwide merchants sites, the first ranking is not the Domaine de la Romanée Conti, but the wine of Henri Jayer a Richebourg Grand Cru rouge côtes de nuits, Pinot Black. The second is the Domaine Romanée Conti  with a Romanée Conti also a Grand Cru Rouge Côte de Nuits Pinot Black . Back to Henri Jayer for  the third place, with a Vosne Romanée Cros Parantoux a red first Cru of the Côte de Nuits and always still Pinot Black . How and why are these wines are so different? Because they are legendary wines , the most complex and the most refined in the world. They are the fruit of a great winemaker and, or, a great domaine . These are rare wines, which are increasingly scarce over time. Richebourg has a surface of 8.03 hectares and Romanée 0.85 hectares , therefore they are not comparable to the super productions of thousands of hectares in other wine regions. Burgundy is a vineyard of “gardens” worked with passion and closer to men because of its deliberately limited space . In addition , these wines are capable of successful aging despite a delicate and precious grape, as the Pinot Noir . Following with the ranking :

4. Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru, Côte de Beaune

5. Egon Muller Scharzhof Scharzhofberger Trockenbeerenauslese Riesling , Mosel , Germany

6 . Domaine de la Romanée Conti Montrachet Grand Cru, Côte de Beaune

7 . Domaine Georges Roumier Musigny Grand Cru Côtes de Nuits

8. Georges and Henri Jayer Echezeaux Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits

9. Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru , Cote de Nuits

10. Petrus , Pomerol , Bordeaux

These wines are unique, extraordinary and without equivalent , reflecting the work of passionate winemakers and in love  with their vineyard.

L’article THE TOP TEN WINES OF THE WORLD est apparu en premier sur Blog World Grands Crus.