Don’t Buy Into The Yquem Frenzy

Last week saw the much-anticipated release of Yquem 2001. With few exciting releases of note this year, this was always going to create something of a frenzy. The 2001 vintage is certainly the best from Sauternes in a generation and Yquem made one of the all-time greats. This, at any rate, is the view of Robert Parker, who thinks "this large-scaled, youthful Yquem appears set to take its place among the most legendary vintages of the past, and will age effortlessly for 75-plus years". The fact that he also gave it 100 Robert Parker (RP) points pretty much guaranteed huge demand and, inevitably, a high price.

Interest in 2001 Sauternes has already been widespread. Other top-rated 2001s, such as Climens (RP 100), Rieussec (RP 99) and Suduiraut (RP 98), have been among the biggest price risers (up by between two and three times) over the past two years. These wines are all already more expensive than any stock available in the last 25 vintages. For this reason, Yquem 2001 was always likely to open at a stratospheric level and then get more expensive. And it has. The wine began trading in the secondary market at £2,300 and hit £2,550 within two days. Indeed, there are reports of trade sales as high as £2,900.

Climens, Rieussec and Suduiraut 2001 (released two years ago) are currently trading at a substantial premium (of two to three times) to their average price over the last 20 vintages. Yquem 2001 is not far off at 1.8 times its average price. This sounds like heady stuff, but with just 8,000 cases to go around, it is perhaps not that surprising. Yquem is the big daddy of Sauternes, and a 100 point score from Parker is the big daddy of scores.

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However, for collectors unable to purchase Yquem 2001 at the opening price, chasing the frenzy may not represent a particularly good investment. A better way to play the excitement may simply be to buy the back vintages because wines such as the 1986 with lots of bottle age, 97 points and trading at a big discount to the 2001, seems a pretty safe bet.

When buying Yquem, it is also worth bearing in mind that half bottles have tended to attract a premium over larger formats. Indeed, as anybody who has tried to serve Sauternes at the end of a dinner party will know, getting through a full bottle is pretty difficult. For this reason, demand for half bottles has always exceeded that for bottles, particularly outside of France.

This premium is more pronounced on older vintages because Yquem only bottled about one seventh of its production in halves. This has changed since the more customer-savvy LVMH took over in 1997, but the logic remains the same.

There has been a contraction in the premium for younger vintages. The average premium enjoyed by halves in the secondary market for vintages back to 1982 is 11% and is up to 20% for top vintages in the Eighties. But despite this contraction, we would still recommend buying halves where possible, because they will always be harder to find and easier to sell.

Justin Gibbs is director of Liv-ex.com