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Bordeaux in Crisis

Craig Camp

By Craig Camp
in Wine

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Andre

Andre

Posted
Posted

This was also on Monte Carlo Mediterranean radio station several days ago.

May the fine wines prevail should they be famous or not.

Andre Suidan

I was taught to finish what I order.

Life taught me to order what I enjoy.

The art of living taught me to take my time and enjoy.

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Really Nice!

Really Nice!

Posted
Posted
...at the very least these lower yields should mean better wine.

What they can sell and what they can produce are two different things.

"Any wine remaining will be stored pending its sale as bulk wine, or until the CIVB decides conditions have improved."

I read this as meaning production will be normal; they just want to drive the prices back up for the first wine of the chateaux.

"The price of wine has collapsed in the last three years to almost half what it was."

Huh? The 2000 and 2003 are the highest I've seen. :shock:

Drink!

I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. --John Mortimera

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Boris_A

Boris_A

Posted
Posted

The focus is standard "Bordeaux AOC", as far as I understand:

Producers affected are the main rump of generic Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur. With the price of wine plummeting below the level at which it is economic even to pick the grapes, many are resigned ..... The reasons for the crisis are well-documented: falling domestic consumption, France’s paralysis in the face of cheap, reliable, easy-drinking, well-marketed, understandably-labelled Australian wine. Generic Bordeaux is also dogged by accusations of falling quality.

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

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Brad Ballinger

Brad Ballinger

Posted
Posted

I think the following is a good sumamry of why there is an apparent "crisis" in Bordeaux...

The reasons for the crisis are well-documented: falling domestic consumption, France’s paralysis in the face of cheap, reliable, easy-drinking, well-marketed, understandably-labelled Australian wine. Generic Bordeaux is also dogged by accusations of falling quality.

The export market buying the types of wines listed above are of a different breed. The word "Bordeaux" on a label means little to them. Inside France, it may very well be a quality issue among those who know quality. Better (or at least more accessible) wines are being made in all parts of the world -- including other regions of France -- and they are getting noticed. This provides many "entry points" for the wine newbie, and not just Bordeaux AC as an entry point to classified Bordeaux. And from any of these competing entry points, the Bordeaux AC is no longer a stop along the road -- the motorway bypasses it altogether.

A key phrase in the excerpt above is "well-marketed." Bordeaux has failed in this regard. Not for lack of trying -- there are continously efforts to elevate or re-establish Bordeaux's image as the world's premier wine region. Those efforts have certainly failed in the U.S., and I would guess elsewhere.

Of course, for Bordeaux to turn it around, there will need to be plenty of cooperation among a large number of players. Fat chance.

We cannot employ the mind to advantage when we are filled with excessive food and drink - Cicero

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pedro

pedro

Posted
Posted
...at the very least these lower yields should mean better wine.

What they can sell and what they can produce are two different things.

"Any wine remaining will be stored pending its sale as bulk wine, or until the CIVB decides conditions have improved."

I read this as meaning production will be normal; they just want to drive the prices back up for the first wine of the chateaux.

"The price of wine has collapsed in the last three years to almost half what it was."

Huh? The 2000 and 2003 are the highest I've seen. :shock:

That's the point. They're not putting a stop in the capacity (what can be produced), but a stop in the offer (what can be sold). Therefore, the quality issue not only remains, it becomes worse. Quality will remain the same, since the same quantity of wine will be produced but only a part of it will be labeled as Bordeaux. Therefore, the price of that wine will momentarily rise. But then you will find that the price gap between Bordeaux wine and wine from competitors of similar if not better quality has become wider!

The conclusion is clear. Why are you going to pay more for the same wine when there are other options providing more quality in the market? Just because there's less bad Bordeaux wine? I don't think so

PedroEspinosa (aka pedro)

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ctgm

ctgm

Posted
Posted

"The price of wine has collapsed in the last three years to almost half what it was."

Huh? The 2000 and 2003 are the highest I've seen. :shock:

I don't think that this ruling will be applicable to many of the Cru Classe chateaux as hopefully they do not make more than 50hl/ha. It is more the generic wines.

The CIVB will be more than happy for those few classified growths making the reputation for Bordeaux, but will be concerned that generic Bordeaux is dragging it back down. I am not sure of the figures but the cru classe make up a tiny proportion of Bordeaux production. I don't know the figures overall but I found on the www the figures for the Medoc

Cru Classe - 60 properties - 20% production (which in my mind is a very big percentage)

Bourgeois - 341 properties - 53%

other cru - 343 props - 16%

co-ops - 10 props - 11%

Without the cru classes what is Bordeaux? For me if I have to buy a $5 bottle I would never look to Bordeaux but go south to Spain

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Boris_A

Boris_A

Posted
Posted (edited)
The price of wine has collapsed in the last three years to almost half what it was. In the mid-1990s barrels of standard AC Bordeaux red were fetching around €1500. A 900-litre barrel now fetches around €760.

We are talking here about $1/bottle producer selling price.

I don't believe the AOC commission is able to control the amount of produced wine, only the amount of wine labelled as AOC. I don't think there's a legal base to limit the amount of (bulk) wine a producer chooses to produce. Not even in France.

Edited by Boris_A (log)

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

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pedro

pedro

Posted
Posted
I don't believe the AOC commission is able to control the amount of produced wine, only the amount of wine labelled as AOC. I don't think there's a legal base to limit the amount of (bulk) wine a producer chooses to produce. Not even in France.

In Spain, the Denominaciones de Origen (equivalent to AO) have regulations about the maximum kilos of grape per hectarea that are allowed in that DO. So if your production exceeds that limit, you won't be able to label any of your wine as pertaining to the DO.

Not that there aren't imaginative workarounds, BTW.

PedroEspinosa (aka pedro)

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Boris_A

Boris_A

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the clarification. Additionally, AOCs (or DO, DOCs, etc) can have their individual regulations and exceptions (to simplify matters, :blink: ). Andrew Barr's chapter "The law is an ass" comes always to my mind. As for the workarounds ...

The "uprooting of hundreds of hectares" is also not exactly implying lower yields per surface.

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

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