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 of En Primeur.
It is possible to take a broader view, and more positive view. Andy Lench, the proprietor of BWI and US-based BWL, has over 20 years experience of trading and drinking Bordeaux and sees only advantages:
“I believe this is a tremendous benefit to both the consumer and the image of the Chateau itself. How many times have we opened a great bottle only to be disappointed? Now, with guaranteed provenance the Chateau is ensuring the consumers receive impeccable stock without authenticity issues.”
Latour have seized the initiative at a time when En Primeur, and by extension the Bordeaux wine region, are provoking controversy and, in places, heated resentment. Many have argued that En Primeur is not working well. A system which arose to improve cash flow for producers in return for significantly advantageous prices for early buyers is also open to exploitation by speculators and fraudsters. Even the most ardent lover of Bordeaux has felt disquiet at the ever-earlier rush to taste these infant wines, and pronounce definitively on their quality. Even the most experienced of palates relies on the Châteaux to present samples that faithfully reflect the finished blend, months before the wines will be bottled. Many Châteaux make this commitment. But, really, should they? So much will change in these wines. To pretend otherwise has become the artificial necessity of tyrannical scores. (A reason, incidentally, for our decision not to include scores in our En Primeur report for 2011.)
Implicit in Latour’s decision, and the comments of Frederic Engerer, is unease at the increasing use of wines as a pure investment vehicle. Of course, wine has long been bought for profit and pleasure – witness the time-honoured and rather genteel maxim that one should buy two cases, sell the first, and hopefully drink the second for free. (The worse-case scenario is that you make no money, but enjoy drinking both cases anyway). In the case of wines from leading Châteaux, at least, the structure of En Primeur has facilitated speculation with, recently, spectacular returns. Companies from outside the ‘traditional’ wine trade have been quick to spot the potential. The majority are legitimate if, for wine lovers, prosaic enterprises. A minority are cynical or downright shady, and Bordeaux has suffered by association.
As anyone who has met him can testify, Engerer is a passionate wine lover. But he is also a sensitive and sophisticated marketeer. Latour have understood the danger to even, perhaps especially, the finest wine if it never drunk, but eternally traded. It is a neat paradox: the quality and specificity of these great wines have inspired such demand that they are traded, with the status of luxury goods, as commodities. The nature of commodities is that they have no quality, in its truest sense of ‘type’. Nuance ceases to matter. And this is where the danger lies. The aesthetic values of fine wine are evocative and inspiring. Those of pure profit are not, despite the fact that it is profit that has allowed a decade of huge investment in Bordeaux’s elite vineyards and wineries.
Of course, there are implicit reasons behind this decision, too. Latour will control distribution and placement, and directly manage their relationships with customers. They will also benefit from the margin hitherto enjoyed by the middlemen.
Latour may not need the cash flow injection of En Primeur, but most of Bordeaux’s Châteaux certainly do. If other First Growths follow suit, En Primeur will focus on the quiet majority of Bordeaux. These ‘modest’ Châteaux will have the incentive to price keenly. They have never made better wine than they are making today, and can only benefit from the renewed attention of Bordeaux’s expert courtiers and negociants. Consumers, too, could benefit from a cooler, saner season of En Primeur, and a reminder of the value and character to be found in the world’s largest fine wine region.
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