Were the 2007 Bordeaux really that bad? part 1

After a run of very good years the conditions for the 2007 vintage were not ideal resulting in the initial reports on the quality of wine not being good.

Up until 1999 a good bottle of Bordeaux would cost you around £10 but it all went wrong, from a consumers viewpoint, on the turn of the century.

A number of very smart marketers in the Bordeaux region saw the benefits that the Millennium year could bring and made a concerted effort to place Bordeaux wines as being THE drink to have for the New Year if you were a serious wine drinker rather than champagne that everyone would be drinking.

This was couple by excellent growing conditions and near perfect ripening conditions resulting in an excellent vintage.

What many people do not know is that you do not buy wine from the Chateau or grower but rather from a "negociant" who buy the wines on speculation, almost like buying futures, and then hope that the wine is an excellent one when it is ready for drinking 2 years later, although many Bordeaux are much better left for longer periods.

In order to be able to bid for the following year's crop a negociant must buy a certain amount of product in the current year.

The early marketing of the Millennium crop meant that prices rose steeply in 2000 and the perfect year in 2003 meant that the prices rose considerably, in some instances doubling the previous year's highs.

Because of the tight restrictions on watering and cropping, unlike in Australia and other New World regions, Bordeaux wines often bounce between excellent years and bad years with average ones in between. The first decade of the century however bucked this and in 2005 had another near perfect year producing another excellent vintage, the second in 2 years.

This created a lot of excitement in the industry and coupled with strong economic situation around the world resulted in prices spiraling upwards.

2006 was an OK year but retained the excitement from 2006 and once again prices rose sharply but it was in 2007 that the bubble burst in terms of quality but not the prices as the negociants were desperate to retain their bidding rights to the 2008 crop so many in the industry felt that the prices paid were excessive given the expected quality of the wines.

2008 was an OK year but 2009 once again was a good year and has set new benchmarks in terms of pricing - a bottle of 2009 Lafite Rothschild was selling for 1600 Euros per bottle with negociants. Wine speculators are expecting to make bumper profits on this which could mean that bottles will be reaching the market for over 2,000 Euros a bottle putting it far beyond the affordability for the normal wine drinker, and quite a few of the not so normal wine drinkers.