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The release price is what the producer charged its first buyers. The market price is what the last buyer paid. The gap belongs to whoever held the wine in between — the négociant, the importer, the merchant, the collector — and in Burgundy and cult Napa, where release prices are deliberately low, that gap is most of the value.
Two prices, two markets
The primary market is the producer's sale: en primeur in Bordeaux, allocation in Burgundy, a mailing list in Napa, a house release in Champagne. The secondary market is everything after: merchants, auctions, exchanges. A wine has one release price and thousands of secondary prices, which is why Corkonomics records the first as a single reported figure and the second as dated observations.
Who sets the release price
In Bordeaux the château sets it each spring, watching the secondary market for older vintages; set it too high and the campaign fails, as in 2023 and 2024. In Burgundy domaines keep release prices far below market and ration by allocation, so the secondary market prices the wine. In Napa the mailing list works the same way. Latour has removed itself from the futures market and releases from its own cellars years later, capturing the aging premium itself.
What it means for 'return'
A return 'since release' is only earned by someone who bought at release. Most buyers pay a secondary price, and their return starts there. Corkonomics shows both: CAGR since release for the wine's history, and trailing returns from observed prices for what a later buyer would have seen.