Speaking to UK merchants about the 2009 campaign recently, I’ve noticed that they’ve been talking about a trend for buying six-bottle cases en primeur.
With higher prices and lower allocations of the top wines, the only way everyone can get a piece of the pie is through six-packs. Nick Pegna, MD at Berry Bros & Rudd Hong Kong tells me: “I think six packs are becoming more relevant. We saw them first in 1998 and 2000 when prices started rising.”
Indeed, Chateau Lynch-Bages packed 30% of their 2008s in six rather than twelve packs and it is believed that will increase this year.
Pegna adds: “In a vintage where there isn’t a lot of stock, it makes it fairer. Once everybody’s been allocated a little of what they want, you can then look at what’s left at the end of the campaign and start allocating more.”
While the wines will taste the same in six vs 12-pack cases, can investors realise the same returns with the smaller units? Pegna claims they have good resale value and lucky for us, fine wine trading site lix-ev has been hearing the same story from other merchants re six-packs – and they’ve kindly gone and done the research for us.
According to its August Market Report, six packs have, on average, traded at just 0.7% discount to 12s in the past year. Interestingly, the returns on magnum cases (6 x 150cl) and larger size formats were much lower than on the 12 x 75cl cases. The moral of this story is buy your bottles in 75cl if you’re planning on selling rather than drinking your Bordeaux jewels.
