There are two factors that explain why a wine has a luxury price, this can be above the 1,000 eurosos, which is only explained by the exclusivity of the bottle and the knowledge one has of what one is opening. The reflection is from the consultant Montse Alonso, director of Mahala Wine&, who cites as an example of maximum exclusivity Romanée-Conti, whose winery is located in the French municipality of Vosne, which is probably the most recognized wine and perhaps the most expensive too. In the Spanish case, he considers another cult wine, such as La Faraona DO Bierzo (León), which sells for more than 1,000 euros a bottle of a wine that has become an icon.
They are cult wines, which are also being revalued. They are an investment, warns Omar Bravo, national wine manager at the Varma distributor, a group that has just presented a wine to society, Oydor 2018, from the winery Count of San Cristobal (Burgos)with a limited production of 900 bottles, to be launched in excellent vintage years, at a price of 300 euros.
There is a market for this type of wine, and the more exclusive the better. “And if they receive a good rating, the price skyrockets. It happened to us with Bollinger Vieilles Vignes 2008, which the minute after receiving the hundred points from Parker the price went from 900 to 2,500 euros. It became a unicorn, and unicorns are always sold”, explains Bravo, who recalls another special piece from the French maison, whose wine has been linked to James Bond for half a century. “Recently, we offered Bravo Creameries a bottle of size Bollinger Magnum 2007, of the 007 edition, and as soon as the store manager arrived, Elena Bravo, I already had it sold for 5,800 euros”. The explanation, according to this expert, for this phenomenon due to exclusive and high-priced wines, has a mixture of hedonism and ego. “There are people who like to know that there is only one bottle on the market and that bottle is theirs.” There is also, in addition to the hedonistic consumer who seeks to impress, a collector profile, who speculates and sells, and then another group who, as a result of the pandemic, wants to enjoy, and prefers not to keep the wine for 10 or 15 years and drink it sooner. .
It is a market on the rise, says Jordi Monroig, director of marketing for Primeras Marcas, a distributor that has brands such as Louis Roederer, Petrus, Chapoutier or R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia. “We are talking about the market of scarcity, in which it is decisive to manage how you sell it and to whom you sell it. You have to be selective. You don’t sell a 4,000 euro wine, they buy it from you. On the other hand, one of 10 euros has to be sold”, explains Monroig.
Precisely to cover this niche, Leading Brands recently launched Insolity, an initiative aimed at wine lovers, also distillates, and collectors who wish to create their own cellar and store jewels from historic vintages that can be revalued over time. The wines offered in this pioneering initiative in Spain, with guard and custody included, belong to the 1% of the best terroirs in the world: Petrus, Louis Roederer, Domaines OTT, Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Cheval Blanc, Château d’Yquem, Louis Latour, Château Margaux, Gaja or Sassicaia. In addition, it offers its members exclusive access to the en primeurs sale, an opportunity to buy reputable, limited-production wines before they are bottled, at a lower price than they will be when they hit the market, with a revaluation, they calculate, of between 4% and 8% on average each year.
The wine industry of high-end is one of those that maintains strong year-over-year growth. In 2021, according to the luxury investment index of the real estate consultancy Knight Frank, the aforementioned market performed well, with an average increase of around 1% per month. In the champagne category, the revaluation reached 31%, Burgundy wines rose 25%, and Bordeaux, 10%. It is Asian customers, for example, who attach great importance to Burgundy labels, while british and american they prefer champagne.
“In Gordon Ramsay’s 1890 restaurant at the Savoy Hotel in London, customers can pay up to 22,000 pounds for a glass of great wine,” says the Portuguese Claudio Martins, founder of Martins Wine Adviser, which is committed to expensive and different wines, with a project that began in 2021 in Alentejo, with Júpiter, a limited edition wine of 800 bottles at a price of 1,000 euros, which sold out as soon as put it up for sale. Now it is launching another, Uranus, made in Priorat, which is on the market at a price of 1,700 euros per bottle, of which there will only be 500 bottles made by Dominik Huber, from Terroir al Limit. “These wines are aimed at very demanding people, whom you cannot fail, from whom do not pay money because yes, since he has a great knowledge of the market”, says Martins, who has detected a new community of clients “focused on investing in wine, who understand it as an investment”.
Within this fury, Alonso points out, there are also wineries that use the price to position themselves and thus be able to be news and be able to better sell your higher volume brand. “It is a fact that has always been used and that the winery has to justify with a story to tell accordingly. There are always new consumers who see wine as a product to position themselves and play with it seeking power and status in their lives”, adds the aforementioned consultant.
