A barrel of Grand Cru Classé fetches 248 times the price of red Bordeaux

omparison does not provide all the answers but there is no denying that if you place side by side the price fetched by a barrel of Saint-Julien by Château Ducru-Beaucaillou on Sunday 23 June and the average price of a barrel of red Bordeaux from 10 to 23 June, the disconnect between the Grands Crus space and lowly Bordeaux wines is tangible. The super 1855-classified Second Cru Classé reached the stratospheric price of €54,900 for 225 litres – the 2022 vintage barrel was estimated at between €45,000 and €90,000 – whilst the average price of red Bordeaux for four times more wine has currently plateaued at €883 (€913 for the 2023 vintage). This equates to a ratio of 1 to 248 between two worlds that are so close geographically and yet worlds apart from an economic perspective.

“It’s a shock to see the prices of certain Bordeaux wines and makes me emotional to think that the people that produced them don’t even sell them at cost price. I am fully aware of that, I feel as if I am part of the same world”, admitted Bruno-Eugène Borie, the owner of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou last spring. He stressed that the Bordeaux construct “is based on a pyramid. There are colleagues above us who are aware of it. There is a sincere feeling of belonging. We are absolutely united with our colleagues”.

Away from the excitement of the auctions, though, the day-to-day reality of the Grands Crus is less admirable. The 2023 En Primeur campaign produced mixed results for the Médoc and Saint-Emilion Grands Crus and Château Ducru-Beaucaillou was compelled to make a strong gesture of goodwill by reducing its release price for negociants by 35.5%. The price came out at €120 compared with €186 in 2022, which was up by 17.6% on 2021. The entire Place de Bordeaux is having to contend with a supply-driven rather than a demand-driven market.