Bordeaux 2019 en primeur arrived amid Covid-19-related disruption to the tasting schedule and fears of a global recession, and against a general backdrop of young Bordeaux wines struggling for price momentum. The usual early-April tastings had to be cancelled, though some smaller-scale tastings were later organised in Paris and other cities in France.
But, with price cuts averaging 21% compared with the 2018 releases, this year’s campaign brought back ‘some of the magic of the past’, said a Liv-ex report. It added that the top 20 UK merchants reported sales revenue down by 10% on average versus last year, but volume sales increased by an average 15%.
‘Châteaux that made the correct [price] reductions sold well and quickly,’ Farr Vintners buyer Thomas Parker MW told Decanter. ‘Lots sold out to pre-orders and we had to go back to Bordeaux and ask for more.’
While other wines didn’t sell so well, Parker said that ‘it has certainly been a success for us, especially when you consider the mood leading up to the campaign’.
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