1855 (1855.com, 1855.con): nearly 500 cases for 300,000 €!

Château Beychevelle: 2005s and 2007s outstanding

The extraordinary tally of Bordeaux en primeurs not delivered by 1855 to its clients continues to mount and becomes ever more jaw-dropping. Nearly 6000 bottles remain to be delivered for a value of close on 300,000€.

As of today, the tally of wines known to have been ordered, paid for but not delivered has reached 5930 bottles (494 cases) for an estimated value 295,883€. The value is the cost to buy calculated by taking the cheapest price credible price from UK merchants on wine-searcher. 

Vintage breakdown

2002           1 bottle             39.93€

2003       118 bottles     10,330.77€

2004       353 bottles     10,808.35€

2005     3734 bottles    170,372.96€ (+ 4 bottles Flor de Pingus 275€)

2006     1131 bottles      49,341.05€

2007       589 bottles      54,755.08€

Although it is clear that 1855 (1855.com) got into big problems with the 2005 en primeurs, these figures show that the difficulties had already started with the 2003 and 2004 vintages. Fabien Hyon's (COO of 1855) explanation that the failure by 1855 to deliver the ordered en primeurs is down to the economic crisis of 2008 looks increasingly unlikely. 

Hyon said that only 5% of the en primeurs ordered had yet to be delivered. Not knowing the total value of the en primeur orders placed for the vintages 2002-2007, it is impossible to know whether Hyon's figure is correct. However, 1855's total turnover is around 10 million euros and en primeur is only part of their business, so 5% may be an underestimate.  

Do 1855 have the resources to supply both the undelivered en primeurs from 2002-2007 as well as the 2008s, whiuch are due in June? 

1855 is a member of Fevad (la Fédération des entreprises de vente à distance).

From 1855's press release of 31st January 2011 announcing that they had become a member of La Fevad

'La Fevad accorde depuis toujours la plus grande importance à la promotion de règles fondées sur des valeurs de transparence et de respect du consommateur. Ces règles garantissent l`éthique de la profession et permettent de renforcer la confiance des consommateurs, dans l`intérêt de l`ensemble de la profession.'

'Toute entreprise membre de la Fevad s`engage à respecter les principes généraux et les règles prévus par les codes et chartes de la Fevad, tant dans l`esprit que dans la lettre.

"Le fait pour 1855 d`être devenu membre à part entière de la Fevad et signataire de ses codes et chartes est une nouvelle illustration de notre engagement à bâtir une qualité de service de référence » selon Fabien Hyon, Directeur général de 1855."

Contact Presse
Lucie Delaruelle
Responsable Communication, 1855
Tél. : +33 (0) 1 42 61 06 55 - Email : ldelaruelle@1855.com

   

Voluntary code for wine investment

Readers of Jancis Robinson's site will have seen yesterday a request in her 'Free for all' section for a graphic designer to design a logo for a voluntary code for wine investment.  Jancis' request produced a number of promising responses.

A voluntary code for wine investment is currently being developed with a number of companies who either offer wine investment or who sells 'investment grade' wine. This code is intended reflect existing good practice. It is hoped that agreement can be reached in time for the code to be launched before the 2010 en primeur campaign starts. 

Although it is too early to publish the draft code or to list those companies that have indicated support in principle, any company who would like to see the draft can email me. A number of journalists/writers are supporters of the code in principle pending the agreed text.

 

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Anon

Thanks for your two comments below about CB Vintners. Following your mention of lovemoney.com here is a piece by Tony Levene on a phone call from a wine scammer. The page also has a video with Tony explaining why he has a blog about scams and why he is called 'The Scam Magnet'. 

NB (28th February 2011)

Guaranteed returnsCompanies selling investments that are regulated by the FSA are not allowed to make claims of guaranteed returns. If  wine investment was regulated the sort of claims claims made by CB Vintners below would not be allowed.

Albany Portfolio Management: price checker

Albany Portfolio Management, who are linked to Albany Vintners, has a useful price checker on their site. This price checker is a slimmed down version of the excellent www.wine-searcher.com, which some people can find confusing because it does provide so much information. APM's version calculates an average price for any wine on wine-searcher, so giving an indication what you can expect to pay for a wine. To make sure the results are not skewed the 10% cheapest and 10% most expensive prices are excluded.