The 2023 vintage of Carruades de Lafite, Château Lafite Rothschild’s second wine, has largely sold out in China, several wine importers told Vino Joy News.
The 2023 vintage sells out
“You can no longer find the 2023 Carruades de Lafite on the market,” said Li Yajun, CEO of Merveille Business, a Shanghai-based wine merchant that sells Lafite wines in China.
“The 2023 vintage sold out several months ago. Now that we are in the peak Mid-Autumn Festival sales period, buyers who cannot find it have started looking for other vintages,” Li said.
One customer recently sought several hundred bottles of the 2019 vintage in a single order, he added, but stocks of that vintage were also running low.
A person familiar with Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite’s business in China confirmed the shortage to Vino Joy News.
“That is indeed happening. The shortage mainly concerns the 2023 vintage, although other vintages of Carruades de Lafite are still available,” the person said.
An executive at Summergate Fine Wines, who requested anonymity, described a similar situation.
“The more affordable vintages of Carruades de Lafite have become almost impossible to find recently,” she said.
“In fact, the 2023 vintage had largely sold out in the first half of the year. The 2020 to 2022 vintages are relatively expensive, while the 2024 vintage will not be available for collection until November. That has left a temporary gap in supply.”
The Mid-Autumn Festival is an important gifting occasion in China, with consumers buying presents for relatives, friends and business associates. Along with Chinese New Year, it has traditionally been one of the wine trade’s two main sales seasons.
Penfolds Bin 407 and Carruades de Lafite have long been staples of premium business entertaining and gifting, thanks to their widespread recognition and status as pricing benchmarks.
“In China, demand for Carruades de Lafite remains relatively steady for major festivals and everyday business gifting,” the Summergate executive said.
The appeal of the 2023 vintage
Li attributed the particularly acute shortage of the 2023 vintage partly to its value relative to other recent releases.
“The 2023 Carruades de Lafite was the most attractively priced en primeur release of recent years, with trade prices falling below RMB 2,000 [about US$298] a bottle,” he said. “That exceptional value significantly increased demand among high-end consumers.”
But the opportunity to buy below RMB 2,000 was fleeting, he added, helping explain why importers did not replenish their stocks once supplies ran out.
“When domestic stocks sold out and merchants went back to source more, they found that international prices for the 2023 vintage had risen,” Li said. “They were therefore reluctant to buy more.”
Lean inventories leave the market exposed
Another key factor was the limited stock already held in China.
“After the sharp falls in fine wine prices over the previous two years, merchants had avoided accumulating much inventory,” the Summergate executive said.
Bordeaux classified growths have faced widespread pricing pressure in China in recent years. Consumers trading down, substantial inventories and heavily discounted stock sales by some importers pushed market prices close to – and in some cases below – acquisition costs.
Cross-border e-commerce intensified that competition. The channel benefits from zero tariffs and consumption tax and value-added tax levied at 70% of their standard rates. As Vino Joy News previously reported, the cross-border divisions of Tmall and JD.com have both entered the en primeur market, buying directly and shortening the distribution chain to sell at narrow margins.
That model has put traditional wholesalers under pressure. With discounted stock already available domestically, many conventional importers turned bearish on en primeur, reducing or halting purchases over the past two years.
Greater price transparency and increasingly aggressive competition have left many merchants selling Bordeaux classified growths at minimal margins. Those conditions also help explain the attractive pricing of the 2023 Carruades de Lafite.
Fine West, a Chinese fine wine supply chain company, is among the businesses that have stopped buying en primeur over the past two years. Its CEO, Wu Xianghua, described the recent shortage as an example of “herd behaviour.”
“This is the market’s collective response to competition from e-commerce platforms: if there is no profit, reduce supply,” he said.
“With fine wine margins too low and prices yet to find a floor, many distributors have opted to source stock already available domestically, leaving imports to a smaller number of large merchants or e-commerce platforms. That shared approach has now created an imbalance between supply and demand.”
High-end buyers still favour established merchants
Li said the shortage also highlighted the continuing importance of traditional offline channels for Chinese consumers buying expensive wines.
“When purchasing expensive wine, particularly bottles priced above RMB 1,000 [about US$149], consumers place greater emphasis on assurances of quality and authenticity,” he said. “They also value the service provided by offline merchants.”
Many high-end buyers therefore continue to purchase fine wines through merchants or channels they know, keeping a substantial share of sales offline. But caution over purchasing and investment among those suppliers has helped leave the market short of the 2023 Carruades de Lafite.
Discover more from Vino Joy News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
