Grand Vin Wine Merchants UK | Blog

We are pleased to advise you the Bordeaux 2013 En Primeur Campaign has now begun. We are a company that specializes in Bordeaux futures and intend to handle this campaign a little differently than previous ones. We have vast experience on our team with one of the members reaching back to the 1984 vintage, coincidentally another less than stellar year. Due to the poor nature of the vintage we will only be making a few offers during this campaign in order that you are not inundated you with needless communications. We will list all of the wines on our web site and of course if you do not find the wine you desire on our list please contact us and we will be sure to source it for you. There are two bright spots in 2013 - the Sauternes and Dry Whites are very good with some outstanding examples. It was abundantly clear to us all that given Bordeaux experienced a similar weather pattern to the UK and the attendant difficulties this heaped upon the hapless wine maker; the wines would not i...

Wine scores are now so invaluable to the consumer and merchant alike that they both underpin and are the focus of most offers and wine descriptions around the world. The digits given out of 5, 20 or 100 are used to describe and rate a wine in the most laconic of synopses, and a good score – occasionally stretching to three holy digits – has the power to double (or more) a wine’s value globally in a matter of minutes. Speaking on a personal note – not as an ambassador for the company or even the wine trade in general – I have never liked scoring. It has always seemed to me that to give a number to a wine makes as much sense as to give it an interpretive dance (something I do not recommend doing at tastings: the interrogation by psychiatrists is lengthy and the dry cleaning bills are prohibitive). In my mind, scoring seems logically and semantically unsound. Yet score away critics and colleagues do. I understand the appeal, we want to know quickly which wines were preferred, and tasti...

Château Latour is to leave the En Primeur market. Instead, says director Frederic Engerer, they will sell finished wines when they are ready to drink. The provenance and authenticity of wines will also be protected. With this statement, Latour has asserted the real value of even the greatest wines: for drinking pleasure. This bold move has been a long time coming. For years, Latour has reduced the quantity of wines released En Primeur, and controlled allocations tightly. It has inspired plenty of comment and articles, of which two of the most comprehensive from a trade and consumer perspective respectively are by Jancis Robinson on her eponymous website, and Stephen Brook in The Telegraph. You might expect merchants, in Bordeaux and elsewhere, to be disconcerted. Many are.   En Primeur, when it works well, is a buzzy and effective sales campaign which generates excitement and a significant chunk of merchant turnover. Latour’s move could be seen as a threat to future o...