Chateau Latour to exit en primeur
16.04.12
By James Fletcher
In one of the hottest wine headlines for years, Chateau Latour has announced that vintage 2011 will be their final en primeur (in barrel) offering. Instead, in future, they will only offer their wines in bottled format, and even then not until they deem them ready to drink.
In a letter to the trade, Latour confirmed that it is their intention to continue selling their wine through the middle-man negociant system, but in consideration of Latour’s pricing policy, it’s safe to assume that these future ‘mature’ bottled offerings will come at eye-watering prices.
So what does this mean for the investor?
In truth, details thus far are too sketchy to draw any meaningful conclusions – how long do Latour intend to keep their wines back? Do they mean they’ll release them when they’re ‘sort’ of ready to drink (even so, 3-4 years at best), or when they’re really ready (10-15 years)? Will other chateaux follow suit? Is this the beginning of the end for en primeur – but it’s safe to assume that the approaching Latour drought will lead to a flurry of buying on back vintages and a consequent boost in prices.
And what of the final en primeur offering? Is it now a strong buy? Well, that’s entirely subject to price, but with a decent discount to 2009 and 2010, Latour 2011 might just be a good bet…