I don’t know if they still do, but at one time the Chinese called America Gum Shan, the mountain of gold, a symbol of opportunity and the chance to get rich. Today, the Chinese have found another symbol of opportunity whose very name beckons the ambitious. In French Lafite means small hill, in Chinese it is very similar to the word lai-fat or “come get rich.”

It is this association with wealth and opportunity that has made Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and it’s second wine Carruades de Lafite the currency of choice for negotiating Chinese business deals. Which bottle you get depends on who you are and what is “requested”. In China, anything with Lafite in the name sells be it Bordeaux or Burgundy. As such, both wines are becoming literal mountains of gold for owners of bordeaux futures.

Chateau Lafite and its second wine, Carruades de Lafite, continue to defy the fine wine market, with prices of both continuing to rise week on week. Lafite 2008 is currently trading at around $6,000 per case, rising in price by around $140 per week, even though it is not due to be bottled until next year. Margaux 2008, in contrast, is trading at just over $3200.

Carruades 2008 is still at around $1600, but it is predicted to keep climbing closer to the other first growths once in bottle. Gary Boom, managing director of the Bordeaux Index, told decanter.com, ‘Today a case of Carruades 2004 would set you back $2900, which is considerably more than the $2600 you would pay for a case of Mouton 2004.

The September Liv-ex report also looks at the phenomenon of the “seemingly unstoppable Brand Lafite”, reporting that Carraudes has bucked the trend of price drops during the financial crisis, and that on average, recent vintages are now 22% more expensive than they were at the peak of the market in June last year.

“Asia has made up its mind on this brand,” said Boom, “and completely ignores either vintage effect, or Parker scores.”

Tags: asian wine market, bordeaux futures, Bordeaux Index, bordeaux wine, Carruades de Lafite, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, economic crisis, Gary Boom, Liv-Ex 100, Robert Parker, wine price, wine sales

Trackback URI | Comments RSS