Bordeaux 2014: Buying En Primeur
The fact that the Bordelais kept prices so high in 2013 was a sign of a new-found confidence. Alfred Tesseron of Château Pontet-Canet wasn’t even interested in waiting for the critics and the world’s wine trade to taste his wine; he released a week before the primeurs commenced, at a striking €60 per bottle ex-négociant, hardly the mark of a man without belief in his product. His peers followed suit, and what is easy to overlook is the fact that they were all acting in the absence of the nod from Parker. Although Parker only officially ‘retired’ from primeurs reports a few weeks before the 2014 primeurs, he didn’t taste the 2013s en primeur either. He visited the region long after the primeurs were dead and buried, only publishing his report in late August. What, then, should we expect in the 2014 vintage? A softening of prices, even though the only direction in which quality can go after 2013 is up? Absolutely not. Bordeaux has a new-found confidence which seems to be much less influenced by external opinions than it once was. Prices will go up.
Sensing this a group of UK merchants wrote an open letter to the Bordelais in the run up to the primeurs tastings. Some described this as the usual pre-primeurs “toing-and-froing” which I personally thought was rather belittling. The Bordelais have squeezed the prices up and up, leaving little margin for others in the distribution chain, and everybody needs to take their cut otherwise the system doesn’t work. The merchants had every right to point this out, yet again, to the Bordelais. There was little chance of a soothing response though, and the comments coming out of the region in answer to the merchants’ letter carried a subtext that even a five-year old could read. Here, yet again, we have evidence of Bordeaux’s new-found confidence. Prices will go up.
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