Fine Wine Investments with Château Latour
Fine wine investments in Château Latour
Last year, Château Latour shocked the wine community by announcing that vintage 2011 would be their last inclusion in the annual en primeur campaigns, where each of the Bordeaux Chateaux offer buyers the chance to purchase their most recent vintage a couple of years before bottling.
Instead, and in what for Bordeaux was a radical transition from the norm, the estate announced that they would annually release a single fully mature and ready to drink back vintage from their own cellars.
Why invest in fine wine with the Château Latour 1995 Vintage?
This week, they revealed the first such offering; vintage 1995. Interestingly, the Château-cellared stock was released at a price some 20 per cent or so above that of identical cases currently trading in the market, causing no shortage of commentators to question whether the premium could be justified.
More interestingly for those looking to invest in fine wine, though, is that we have our first insight into just how long Latour intend to hold these wines back. ‘Until they’re ready to drink’ was all were previously offered.
So, if we are to now assume that great-but-not-outstanding vintages – the category into which ’95 firmly falls – will be released after about 18 years, then we can safely assume that we won’t be seeing similarly acclaimed ’01, ’02 and ’04 vintages until the next decade.
The East Asia dilemma
And this is where things get interesting: whilst Château Latour might take the view that these vintages are 7-10 years away from drinkability, they are already being consumed in copious quantities in China and elsewhere in Asia. And so it would seem that our old friends supply and demand could soon be at work pushing up the prices of these wines.
Given that Château Latour was a prime target for us already for those seeking to capitalise on the bull run that we’ve now certainly entered into (Liv-ex 50 up 10 per cent in the last four months alone), our thoughts on this are crystallised: Latour ‘01, ‘02 and ‘04 are very strong buys.
Those looking to invest in fine wine and make returns in the long run will want to be well informed about the investments they’re going to make – so they can make the best returns when it comes time to sell. If you want to keep track of the latest big developments, keep in touch with our wine investments articles.
Published November 2012.