|
November 3, 2010 | Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vintage wine sold for a record £147,020 |
London:An 1869 vintage wine of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild was recently sold at auction in Hong Kong for a record 147,020 pounds, leading experts to warn that fine wines could soon become unaffordable. The highest price was paid for the vintage that
had been made while Napoleon III was ruling France and in the year the Suez Canal
was opened. "When you see the prices that were achieved it recalibrates the market
to a certain degree," the Telegraph quoted Robert Sleigh, Sotheby's head of wine
in Asia , as saying. Wine dealers said the auction, organised by Sotheby's, had
"redefined" prices for fine wine across the market, with some describing the prices
as "complete madness". One warned of the "trickle down effect" whereby even wine
usually on sale for 40 pounds or so in a good supermarket would start to increase
in price. "It has to have a trickle-down effect," Gary Boom, the head of Bordeaux
Index, which specialises in trading fine wines, said. "We've already seen that
people who can no longer afford Lafite, start to buy Mouton, and those that can't
afford Mouton, buy Leoville Barton. It goes on down the chain," he stated. Various
vintages of Chateau Lynch-Bages have gone up by 10 percent in the last week. Simon
Staples at Berry Bros wine merchant said the newfound enthusiasm by Chinese investors
for fine wine would continue to drive up prices in years to come. "Demand is already
outstripping supply. But once mainland China wakes up to fine wine and India too,
we will have a serious shortage of supply. That has to force prices up," he stated.
"It's exciting for wine merchants, but in five years' time I worry that it will
be impossible for many drinkers to afford good wine," he added.
|
|
|
|
Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
|