1855 (1855.com): towards the perfect zero (part 3) – Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon up for it!

Château Lynch-Bages, Pauillac – still 12 bottles of 2005 owed to AS

AS offered by poor value deal by 1855

AS is another lost 1855 client. Tired of waiting for his 2005s he opted to go to court to try to get his remaining and has just received this offer from 1855's lawyers: 

'I received this from 1855's Lawyers.

In short, they now advise me that they are not able to deliver the last 36 bottles (12 x Lynch Bages 2005, 12 x Kirwan 2005 and 12 Rauzan Segla 2005), despite having told me otherwise last month.

They are therefore proposing the following:

EUR 2,164.28 refund of the contractual value of the wine

EUR 432.85 compensation (stating this corresponds to an annual rate of 4% which apparently is set by precedent)

EUR 998.95 reflecting the cost between the actual value of the wines and the contractual value

EUR 3,596.08 in total

**

I'm delighted to see that 1855's management (Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon) appear to be fully behind aiming for 'the perfect zero' in respect to Bordeaux en primeur sales in 2012 as the very poor value deal offered to AS will surely never persuade him to place any further orders with 1855. 

If you check the current prices for the three wines still to be delivered on wine-searcher.com and restrict the search to France you will find that these 2005s are still readily available.

Cheapest selling prices shown (10.1.2012: 

€1,607.00 Lynch Bages

€1,265.00 Kirwan 

€1,282.60 Rauzan Ségla

Total €4154.06 without any compensation compared to 1855's offer of €3596.08 with compensation or  €3163.23 without compenastion, so nearly €1000 less than it would cost to buy these three wines.

It would be too easy, however, to think that de Chalon and Hyon are pushing a sharp deal here. Rather, bearing in mind all the complaints and court cases involving 1855, they probably have little actual experience of purchasing fine Bordeaux, so such accusations would be decidedly unfair.

'Management' and leading shareholder of 1855 

Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon are the senior 'management' team of 1855 (1855.com, 1855.con). Thierry Maincent was an administrateur and one of the directeur général délégués until he resigned his posts for personal reasons on 30th September 2010. Businessman Jean-Pierre Meyers, who is on the boards of L'Oréal and Nestlé, is a long-term shareholder of 1855.

1855 is a probationary member of La Fevad.