Yomiuri: Wine prices plunge amid downturn
Supermarkets, department stores and restaurants are increasingly stocking top-class wines at prices that are unlikely leave consumers with a hangover. The fall in prices of high-end wine has stemmed from reduced demand amid the global economic downturn and a strong yen pitched against a weak euro. Wholesale buyers also are tending to import more wines directly from producers. The Seijo Ishii supermarket chain, [which] purchases quality Bordeaux wines by the barrel from French chateaus...currently is accepting orders for wine produced in 2008 for delivery in 2011 or later. It is selling such wines at prices that are 20 percent and 50 percent cheaper than it charged for 2007 wines...Wines produced at Chateau Latour, one of France's top five wine estates, plunged in price from 59,800 yen to 30,000 yen a bottle. The price of Chateau Lagrange wines fell from 6,300 yen to 4,800 yen a bottle. The Mitsukoshi department store chain's Nihonbashi flagship location in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, stocks 60 or more reasonably priced (10,000 yen to 20,000 yen) vintage wines produced between 1961 and 1997 in its Memorial Vintage section...The Hiramatsu chain of French restaurants is undergoing a "wine price revolution" at its restaurants located in major cities nationwide. Since April, the Tokyo-based firm has slashed the prices of about 500 varieties of wine by 40 percent to 60 percent...more...