The fine wine market’s historic brokerage machine is the launch pad for many of the world’s most sought-after wines. What is La Place de Bordeaux and how does it work?
What is La Place de Bordeaux?
La Place de Bordeaux is home to the world’s oldest network of wine traders and provides a mechanism for fine wine producers to efficiently sell their wines into the global marketplace. With roots dating back to the 17th Century, La Place is the ancient system by which the region’s former aristocratic vineyard owners used to arrange the sale and distribution of their fine wines to connoisseurs and collectors across the world.
Steeped in tradition, La Place is a three-tier system which comprises the producers who each have a courtier or representative who liaises with a network of over 300 negociants who in turn deal with over hundreds of global fine wine merchants.
What does La Place de Bordeaux do?
The primary focus of La Place had been solely the business of selling the great wines of Bordeaux. However, as the fine wine market has broadened and become increasingly diverse in the last couple of decades, so too has the business of La Place.
Much of the New World development of fine wine has been driven by the owners of Bordeaux’s great chateaux and this has extended into how the wine enters the market. The late Baron Philippe de Rothschild, of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, initiated the first non-Bordeaux release on La Place in 1998 with his Chilean venture, Almaviva. A second Rothschild interest, Napa icon Opus One, saw its debut on La Place in 2004.
Since then, key Italian, Napa and South American wines use the mechanism not just to sell their new releases, but also to grow their brand profile with the prestige of launching their wines through La Place de Bordeaux.
How does La Place de Bordeaux work?
When planning a vintage release, the wine producers and their courtiers will consider the following key factors to determine the opening price of their wine and the supply to be made available to the market at first release:
- quality scores of the wine to sell
- current prices for back vintages of their wine
- general fine wine market conditions
- potential supply issue of any current crop on the vine (smaller potential due to weather or pest events) could drive higher prices in a current release
- macro-economic factors.
The courtier will then act as the Chateau’s broker and work with their chosen negociants to sell that vintage allocation to be released at the ‘ex-chateau’ price.
There are more than 300 Bordeaux negociants involved in La Place who each have their own relationships with fine wine merchants located in more than 170 countries around the world. The negociants will set the ‘ex-negociant’ price for the wine and sell into their global network.
This system provides an efficient means for establishing an international release price and the fair distribution of the Chateau’s wines to merchants and their clients across all geographic markets and sometimes complex export destinations, providing a relatively ‘hassle free’ route to market for the producers.
An additional benefit for investors is the resultant records of sale through the supply chain and the ability to track provenance.
How important is La Place de Bordeaux to investors?
La Place de Bordeaux is the starting point of sale for many wines that will become targets for wine investors. If you’re looking to be in from the beginning, monitoring the Autumn Releases from the Place will become a key time in your wine investment diary, like the Bordeaux En Primeurs in late Spring.
The broadening of the secondary market in fine wine is reflected in La Place which has evolved from being Bordeaux-centric, to becoming a key route to market for some of Napa and Italy’s top wines at the turn of the century. In Autumn 2023 there will be over 100 wines with growing importance from countries including Argentina, Austria, Chile, China, Spain and South Africa joining those from Champagne, Rhone and the traditional markets.
Which Autumn Release wines should investors be looking at?
Some of the key wines being released include the following:
- Masseto 2020 – 99 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
- Opus One 2018 and 2019 vintages – special library releases as the wild-fire afflicted 2020 vintage has not been released. 99 points, James Suckling
- Solaia 2020 – 97 points, Antonio Galloni
- Inglenook Rubicon 2020 – 96 points Lisa Perotti-Brown MW
- Chateau Beaucastel Hommage àJacques Perrin 2021 – 97 points, Lisa Perotti-Brown MW
Other key releases will include the latest offers from Bordeaux First Growth, Chateau Latour and Chateau d’Yquem, Rothschild’s Almaviva, Cheval Blanc’s Le Petit Cheval Blanc and their Mendoza project’s Cheval des Andes, the Chilean Sena and Champagne’s Philipponnat, Clos des Goisses.
A successful release on La Place can see a wine selling out in a few hours. For those not priced to entice, La Place can be unforgiving and negociants left holding the stock. In a market still challenged by inflation it will be an interesting period.
For more information on investing in fine wine see our 2023 Guide, and for latest market offers speak to a member of our expert team on 0203 384 2262.