Looking back at 2012 - Part 1 | Au revoir annus horribilis

I think it is fair to say that a number of people in the wine world will be looking forward to 2013 without a look over their shoulder; unless of course they want to offer some kind of rude gesture to an annus horribilis.

Vieux Château Certan 2011, the wine that I hailed as the wine to watch has released at the very modest price of £1,080 (Average merchant price) per case.

It was more in hope than belief when I said in an earlier blog that a position midway between the current price for 2008 and 2005 would be reasonable. Whilst I genuinely believe that this is a sensible price, I still have to raise an eyebrow, when the one Château that could push the boundaries, has not done so.

The latter part of last week was back to back with wine auctions on both sides of the Atlantic and overall the market seemed to be quite buoyant. However, there were two glitches in an otherwise successful week.

A reprint from June 2011

The headline wines tend to dominate our thinking when it comes to a vintage, but the reality is that there are really very few trophy wines and quite a lot of very good wines that fail to really make the headlines. These good wines receive similar critical acclaim to their more illustrious peers, but due a lack of the brand quality they do not move up to the next level.