Invest In White Wines Of Burgundy: Leflaive Gives You Access To The Attractive White Wine Investment Of The Future

White Grand Cru From Burgundy Is The Perfect Choice

... And when you have had a taste, it is impossible for you not to agree. All without it becoming necessary to start a final discussion about red vs. white. For now, it's not just a matter of taste.

The big auction houses like Christies and Sothesby are reporting an increased interest in white Burgundy wines, and it is mainly the greatest and best ones it is about.

The English wine exchange Liv-ex also agrees with fresh figures from January 2021, where the Burgundy 150 index is the best performing in the first month of the year. A performance driven by DRC and white Grand Cru Burgundies.

Now is your chance to invest in the 2nd place of Liv-ex's Power 100 list for 2020, Domaine Leflaive, in the top wine of the Domaine^*, and at the same time invest in the promising future of white Burgundy wines...

*Chevalier-Montrachet is widely recognised as Leflaive's top wine, as the domain's Montrachet is produced on such a small scale that it seems more like a myth than a wine that can actually be traded.

One Of The Greatest Of Burgundy: Madame Anne-Claude Leflaive

Anne-Claude Leflaive is an inspiration to many in Burgundy and especially in the Puligny-Montrachet area. Anne-Claude became manager with her uncle Olivier Leflaive in 1990 and from the beginning, she helped to raise the domain's wines to a new level. From 1993, Anne-Claude managed the domaine herself and converted all the vineyards to biodynamic cultivation. The wines that came from the domain during this time helped to convince other producers to go the biodynamic path in order to increase the production of good wines to even better ones.

Sadly, Anne-Claude Leflaive passed away in 2015 at the age of only 59 after a sad course of cancer. Since then, Brice de La Morandiere has been the driving force of the domain. Brice continues the style set by Anne-Claude, and even in difficult vintages they stick to the biodynamic standards. In the vineyard and in the cellar, Brice is assisted by Pierre Vincent, who also worked with Anne-Claude Leflaive. Today, the cellar has been built according to Anne-Claude's thoughts, so that it is shaped like an egg, so that the energy in the cellar flows optimally.

A Generous Vintage Behind Your White Wine Investment

The 2018 vintage was very generous for the winemakers of the Cote de Beaune, but at Domaine Leflaive they feared the big harvest early on. For the same reason, they decided to prune up to 40% of the grapes from the vines during the summer. Despite the pruning, it was the largest production at Domaine Leflaive since 1982, producing wines with great concentration and a clear imprint of their terroir. Especially in a vintage like this, the greatest wines will always be a notch above those ranked below. This Chevalier-Montrachet will stand in the future as a true legend for what was achieved in this particular vintage.

Domaine Leflaive normally produces between 8,000-10,000 bottles of Chevalier-Montrachet per year. It is to be expected that it will be at the upper end of this range in this generous vintage. Nevertheless, we are dealing with an extremely limited production of one of the most coveted white wines from Burgundy.

Vintage 2018: So Far In The Top 5 Best Of The Last 20 Vintages

There is no doubt that Leflaive's Chevalier-Montrachet is one of the best white wines in the world and the scores are following this as well. The 2018 vintage has received 96 points from Wine Advocate, while the scores from Burghound and Vinous are still preliminary. Taking the average of these scores, the 2018 Chevalier-Montrachet lands at 98.83 points, which puts it in the top-5 best Chevalier-Montrachets scored by the greatest critics over the past 20 vintages.

Should Burghound and Vinous be pleasantly surprised since they gave their barrel score and the vintage is rated at the upper end of their preliminary barrel score, then the 2018 vintage may be as uniquely rated as the 2014 vintage, which is one of the best ever. In this context, it should be mentioned that Wine Advocate awarded 94-96 points for the 2018 vintage but upgraded this to 96 points in the final score. Something that has great promise for Vinous' and Burghounds final scores.

Vintage 2019: Low Yield At A Towering High Price

The 2019 vintage of Leflaive's Chevalier-Montrachet was released in the UK in December 2020. The vintage has resulted in lower harvest yields than what people are used to. In addition, Liv-ex reports that the 2019 vintage was released at a price that was 17.2% higher compared to the release price of the 2018 vintage. On the one hand, this means that a lower harvest yield in the 2019 vintage means that there is less Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet on the market, while the significantly higher release price helps to pull up the prices of only Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet.

The Chinese Are Once Again Playing A Big Role - And Their Role Is Only Getting Bigger

In the last 10 years, China has made up much of the "lost ground" when it comes to wine consumption compared to the rest of the world. The pursuit of Western lifestyle and luxury among the fast-growing middle class is one of the reasons why China has become the fifth largest wine-consuming nation in the world in just a few years, surpassed only by the United States, France, Germany and Italy. The interesting thing, however, is that this is the result of total consumption, not per capita consumption. With a consumption of only about 1 litre per capita (Denmark = about 30 litres per capita), there is still huge potential in the Chinese market. And while China is already an interesting market for the best red wines, Daxue Consulting, a consultancy specialising in Chinese market research, among others, estimates that the Chinese thirst for white wine will increase in the next few years.

We have already experienced a foretaste of these predictions, as prices for mature vintages of some of the greatest and best white grand cru, including Leflaive's Chevalier-Montrachet, have up to doubled in the past year. A price development that is likely to be driven by increased demand, not only from the East, but from the entire wine world.

Rarewine Invest's Opinion

Domaine Leflaive is one of the greatest and best white wine producers in the world. The 2nd place on Liv-ex's 2020 Power 100 list, published just over a month ago, only underlines this. In fact, according to this list, only Domaine Leroy surpasses Leflaive in the entire wine world, while we have to go down to 46th place to find the next white wine producer.

In other words, Domaine Leflaive's top wines, including Chevalier-Montrachet, are the perfect wines for investment, whether it's brand, quality, demand or scale of production.

And while production of the absolute greatest white Burgundy, implicitly grand cru, is hyper-limited even compared to red Burgundy, demand is rising.

In fact, if you break this case down completely, everything suggests that demand for the best white wine in the world will continue to increase, while supply is extremely limited - and cannot be increased. If you also believe this, it is important to secure a share of the sparse quantities and rejoice in the fact that you will be able to offer the attractive mature white Burgundies on the world wine markets in the future. And with the development that the release prices for the new vintages have, everything indicates that the mature editions will be extremely expensive in the future.

The development is already showing a really exciting trend, but if you master the art of patience, everything points to the greatest white Burgundy wines becoming true treasures in the future - and in this category we find the Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet undeniably one of the greatest.