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Atlas Fine Wines | Dec 01, 2014
Simon Larkin (Master of Wine and Managing Director of Atlas Fine Wines Ltd.) was recently interviewed by Guy Collins, Bloomberg’s Wine Correspondent, at Atlas’ offices in Canary Wharf. This broad ranging discussion covered market trends and the outlook for 2015. Simon spoke of his recent trip to Burgundy to taste the 2013 vintage, his thoughts on the 2014 Bordeaux Campaign, as well as growing potential in Italy and Champagne. His comments on the Bordeaux 2014 campaign were also published in a Bloomberg Article,
‘Solidity Returning to Prices’ for Bordeaux Wine: Larkin . The full article also appears below.
‘Solidity Returning to Prices’ for Bordeaux Wine: Larkin
“There’s a solidity returning to prices” for top Bordeaux wines after three years of sliding values as buyers start to return, according to Simon Larkin, owner and managing director of Atlas Fine Wines Ltd. in London.
“Bordeaux is almost at that base where we’re going to see some growth coming in,” he said in an interview at his Canary Wharf office this month.
The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index measuring Bordeaux first-growth wines has declined for 18 of the past 20 months while the broader Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index tracking Burgundy, Champagne, Rhone and Italian wines as well as Bordeaux rose for three straight months from the start of August.
“We’ve come off of a dramatic price high and it’s been a difficult period for the market, it’s come down in steps almost,” said Larkin, a Master of Wine. “We’ve all been predicting where are we bouncing along the bottom of the market, have we reached there yet? In a lot of instances I think we have.”
He said future price patterns would be influenced by how the 2014 Bordeaux vintage, due for presentation to the trade in April, is priced by the growers.
“They’ve got to be attractively priced,” Larkin said, saying wine estates had struggled to find the right pricing levels for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages. “The Bordelais have had three attempts at getting the price right,” he said. “This year they can’t afford to get it wrong.”