{"id":6251,"date":"2012-12-23T13:01:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T13:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=6251"},"modified":"2012-12-23T13:01:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T13:01:38","slug":"bordeaux-prices-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/bordeaux\/bordeaux-prices-then-and-now","title":{"rendered":"Bordeaux prices, then and now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Was Bordeaux more affordable in times gone by? With the help of a 1909 price list from Berry Bros & Rudd<\/a> and the website www.measuringworth.com<\/a>, I thought I’d find out.<\/p>\n

Here’s the 1909 BBR Bordeaux list, with prices in shillings per dozen (there were 20 shillings in the pound, until 1971):<\/p>\n

CLARET.<\/p>\n

1904
\nCh. Talbot\u00a0<\/strong>… … … …\u00a030\/-
\nCh. Pichon Longueville\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a033\/-
\nCh. Gruaud Larose Sarget\u00a0<\/strong>…\u00a034\/-
\nCh. Canon,\u00a0<\/strong>1er\u00a0St Emilion\u00a0<\/strong>…\u00a036\/-<\/p>\n

1905
\nCh. La Mission Haut Brion\u00a0<\/strong>Ch.bottled\u00a042\/-
\nCh. Margaux,\u00a0<\/strong>1st growth \u201d\u00a054\/-
\nCh. Latour,\u00a0<\/strong>1st growth \u201d\u00a050\/-
\nCh. Mouton Rothschild,\u00a0<\/strong>\u201d\u00a050\/-
\nCh. Haut Brion,\u00a0<\/strong>1st growth \u201d\u00a060\/-<\/p>\n

1899
\nCh. L\u00e9oville, Poyferr\u00e9\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a042\/-
\n\u201d \u201d Lascases\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a045\/-
\nCh. Brown Cantenac\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a045\/-
\nCh. Lafite\u00a0<\/strong>… … … …\u00a072\/-<\/p>\n

1896
\nCh. Lafite\u00a0<\/strong>… … … …\u00a078\/-
\nCh. La Mission Haut Brion 72<\/strong>\/–<\/strong><\/p>\n

1893
\nCh. L\u00e9oville, Lascases\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a060\/-
\nCh. Cheval Blanc\u00a0<\/strong>… … …\u00a078\/-<\/p>\n

1888
\nCh. Smith Haut Lafite\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a072\/-<\/p>\n

1878
\nCh. Lafite\u00a0<\/strong>Ch. Bottled … …\u00a0180\/-
\nCh. Palmer Margaux\u00a0<\/strong>… …\u00a096\/-
\n1877\u00a0Ch. L\u00e9oville\u00a0<\/strong>… … … …\u00a0108\/-
\n1874\u00a0Ch. Larose,\u00a0<\/strong>in Wine Bottles …\u00a066\/-
\n1870\u00a0Ch. Margaux\u00a0<\/strong>… … … …\u00a090\/-
\n1869\u00a0Ch. Lafite,\u00a0<\/strong>Grand Vin, Ch. Bottled\u00a0200\/-<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now let’s look at how much a shilling was worth in today’s prices. This gets a little complicated, because it depends on which measure you use. Using the retail price index (RPI) changes, a shilling then is worth \u00a34.26 today. But if you look in terms of income value (that is, the relative average income that would be used to buy a commodity, calculated using GDP per capita), then a shilling\u00a0then is worth the equivalent of \u00a325.90 today. That’s quite a difference.<\/p>\n

The 1904 Talbot is therefore priced at either \u00a3127.90 per case, or \u00a3777.10. The former makes it much more affordable; the latter makes it more expensive than\u00a02004 (\u00a3350\u00a0per case in bond seems to be the current market price). Maybe a fairer comparison would be with 2005 (1904 was rated as an excellent, ample vintage in Bordeaux), in which case the market price for Talbot is \u00a3420 in bond.<\/p>\n

What of the 1905 Latour, from another very good year. At 50 s a case, this works out at \u00a3213 or \u00a31295, depending on which comparison you use. Compare that with the market price for 2005 Latour (\u00a37000 in bond per case), and it seems that the very top wines were more affordable then than they are now, with the differential between very good and the very top Bordeaux wines being much smaller in 1909 than it is today.<\/p>\n

Of course, I am not an economist, so I only have limited understanding of these issues. I’d love to have input from those more economically literate than I am.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was Bordeaux more affordable in times gone by? With the help of a 1909 price list from Berry Bros & Rudd and the website www.measuringworth.com, I thought I’d find out….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bordeaux","category-business-of-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6259,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251\/revisions\/6259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}