The Spanish Way

A few weeks ago, Chateau Latour announced that it was dropping out of the Bordeaux futures (en primeur) system.  Although not unique to that region, the futures system is most closely identified with Bordeaux’s top-rated wines, of which Chateau Latour sits at the pinnacle.

How do Bordeaux futures work?  In the spring following the harvest (i.e., right now), wines are sampled from the barrel and sold to brokers and other intermediaries (like the LCBO and the SAQ).  Wineries don’t necessarily sell all their wine through futures but it’s a way to generate immediate cash flow and market buzz.  The consumer sometimes gets a better price paying early, although (like any commodity) there’s a chance that the price will have gone down when they bottle the wine in a couple of years.  In the last few years, speculators (along with the nouveau riche in East Europe and China) have used this market to drive the price of the very best Bordeaux wines into the stratosphere.

With this year’s vintage, Chateau Latour turned its back on the futures system.  Instead, Latour embraced what I think of as “the Spanish way”.  They will release their wines when Chateau Latour believes they are ready to drink.  So Chateau Latour 2012 might not arrive on the market until 2021-2023.  They’ll keep back their second wine, Les Forts de Latour, for 7 years.  As well as cutting out the speculators (and keeping more profits for the Chateau), one of Chateau Latour’s concerns is that impatient (or unknowing) consumers drink their wines too soon.

I’ve long been a fan of this approach: wineries holding on to their wines until they are ready to drink.  Spanish wineries did this for a long time and many still do.  Although more wines than ever are made to drink early, many finer wines require several years of cellaring before they can be appreciated fully.  Why not take the guesswork (and cellaring) out the consumers hands by holding back the wines until they are ready to drink?  

For the winery, they get a higher share of the margins by cutting out speculators.  For the consumer, they get a superior product that’s been properly stored and is ready to drink.  Win-Win.  It's an approach that works for any wine that needs some time to age, not just those super-expensive Bordeaux.

More wineries should go the Spanish way.

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Bordeaux Futures & The Future of Bordeaux

When I was in France last autumn, the word was already out about the 2009 vintage. In much of France, perfect weather throughout the growing season led to optimism and excitement about the quality of the crop in Languedoc, Rhone, and (especially) Bordeaux. Enthusiasm and, inevitably, hype about the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux continued through the winter into spring, reaching a peak during “Futures Week” in Bordeaux, held at the beginning of April.

Futures Week allows the big critics (Parker, Wine Spectator, Robinson, Decanter) to taste the big wines in cask; that is, before they’re bottled. More importantly for the Bordeaux wine trade, it kicks off sales of the wine, before bottling, to retailers and consumers. (It’s supposed to be win/win: the consumer gets prestigious wines at a lower price than will prevail when the wine hits the market after bottling. And the winemaker gets cash inflow well before bottling.)

This year’s Futures Week was frenzied. Parker, a master of hype, generally conceded to be the world’s most influential wine critic, declared that the 2009 vintage “may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux”. (Or may not?) Within three weeks, the wine media reported predictions that prices of the 2009 Bordeaux First Growths (e.g., Lafite-Rothschild) would reach $1,500 a bottle. Gulp! Well, then again, gulp not. I still have the first book about wine that I ever bought, Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion, published in 1983. In it, he lists prices for First Growth wines from the 1980 vintage. Thirty years ago, First Growths cost about $23 a bottle.

Yes, drinking fine wine has become a global passion and prices have (cliché alert) skyrocketed.  Mr Demand, meet Miss Supply.  But it also shows how much speculation and status-seeking have warped the marketplace.

Unless you’re über-rich, Bordeaux First Growths are way out of reach. And even the Super Second wines of Bordeaux are pushed to ridiculous prices for many consumers. Aye, there's the rub for Bordeaux. Thanks to those speculators and status-seekers, the best of Bordeaux is out of reach. And the rest of Bordeaux that shows up here is Vin very Ordinaire: too often over-priced for lesser quality than wines from other regions at the same price.  That's not just a New World reaction to Bordeaux (check out my conversation with Sergio Calderon from Bras.)

Me? I still love you, Bordeaux. At your best, you’re complex and refined. And I’ll keep looking for good value from Bordeaux, although it’s rare! Hey, Bordeaux Futures? Enjoy life among the speculators. Winedrinkers have moved on; for them, Bordeaux is irrelevant.

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