New label at Saint-Estèphe

Michel Michel Reydier and Jean-Guillaume Prats of Château Cos d'Estournel (Classified 2nd Growth ) are creating a new estate in the Medoc that breaks with tradition in the region. The wine, called Goulée, is neither a château-made and -bottled brand nor a negociant brand made from purchased wines. Positioned between the two levels in terms of price and quality, the wine is aimed at consumers seeking a fruity, lightly oak-aged red that can be drunk young. 

The wine is made using Burgundian methods such as cold pre-fermentation maceration and manual punch-down of the cap. Fermentation takes place in special conical stainless-steel vats originally designed for use in the milk industry. The wine will be released in early 2005 after 10 months aging in 50 percent new oak. One-third of the 1,000-case production will be exported to the United States, where the wine will retail for about $30 a bottle. Isn't the price a bit expensive for a light, fruity wine to be consumed young, as the market already offers plenty of tasty New World $12-$20 wines? (Source: Winespectator)

Château d'Yquem changes Management

Château d'Yquem has retired its 69-year-old president, Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces, and replaced him with Pierre Lurton, who will also stay on as managing director of Classified First Growth Saint Emilion Château Cheval Blanc and will add the title of CEO and managing director of d'Yquem. 
The decision marks the end of the Lur Saluces dynasty's 219-year control at the illustrious Sauternes Barsac estate, whose 252 acres produce the world's most famous sweet white wine from botrytized grapes. The changes allow the majority owners, multibillionaire Bernard Arnault and the luxury-goods conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), to take charge of d'Yquem. (Sources: AFP)

Screw-top experiment

Studies show that through the world, 3% to 5% of wines produced are flawed by cork problems. This proportion represents a huge amount of 18 million bottles which go down the sink every year! In an attempt to avoid such problems, André Lurton will be putting his white wines - including his great growth Couhins-Lurton, and his soon-to-be great growth La Louvière - in bottles with screw-top capsules starting with the 2003 vintage. This will not be done systematically at first, but test-marketed in Germany, England, Scandinavia, and Russia. The experiment will be conducted on dry white wines of the Pessac-Leognan Gaves area. 

Château Bonnet from the Entre-Deux-Mers area will be trying the same kind of experiment on their side. Paul Pontalier of Château Margaux also expressed his intention to market one third of Chateau Margaux's second wine, the Cabernet based Pavillon Rouge, with a similar screw-top type. For sure, this is a big change on consumer's mentality! (Source: Sud Ouest)

Super-AOC project?

René Renou, the director of the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO), has proposed the division of the current system into two, with the country’s best wines earning the status of ‘Super A.O.C’. As part of the proposals, the production laws of lower-quality appellations would be relaxed, but would retain their A.O.C status, while regions producing wines of ‘demonstrably superior quality’ would be granted ‘Super A.O.C’ status.

‘It’s a way of declassifying without saying it’. The view in Bordeaux is less enthusiastic, however. ‘It’s a waste of time,’ said Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bordeaux (CIVB) committee member and Maison Sichel MD Allan Sichel. ‘Some A.O.C's would be strict, and others lax, and the system would be more, not less, complicated for the consumer.

‘What we need to do is to concentrate on the quality of A.O.Cs, and find ways of making products which work for the mass market outside the A.O.C system’. Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil and French Wine Expert, President of French Wine Explorers also comments: ‘If one tells the winemakers who make lousy wines that, if they want the A.O.C denomination (which means they can sell their wines for higher prices), they have to produce better wine, there's at least a chance they'll make better wines. If you tell them, don't worry, it's okay that you make lousy wines, we'll just give you your own level of A.O.C, then they'll continue to make lousy wines.

Moreover, the good A.O.C wines will suffer, because the words Appellation d'Origine Controlee are still used, most people won't necessarily see the difference right off, and when they're drinking that swill, they'll think "wow, A.O.C wines really aren't that good after all". That's why, to my way of thinking, a "lower class" A.O.C classification is not the answer’. (Source: Harpers Wine - Le Monde).

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Wine crisis: drastic measures proposed

The wine industry is very much in the news these days in France. Things are not well, and there is considerable worry about selling stocks at a cost that ensures a reasonable standard of living. It seems the crisis in Bordeaux is deepening as trade groups are lobbying for the adoption of a system already in place in other European regions where growers who pull up vines are able to benefit from aid in return for leaving land fallow but at same time maintain their plantation rights. 

The current crisis of France's wine industry has basically three origins:  

1. the decrease in consumption of wine in France.
2. the lumping together of wine with other stronger alcoholic beverages, which inhibits marketing and promotion to get people to buy and drink wine, for fear of inciting alcoholism.
3. the decrease in French wine purchases in export markets

Trade groups such as the Fédération des Syndicats des Grands Vins de Bordeaux and farming group, the FDSEA, are now talking openly of such a drastic option in order to cope with one of the worst crises to hit the sector in recent years. Producers of "generic" A.O.C such as Bordeaux, Bordeaux supérieur, Medoc, Haut-Médoc and Pessac-Leognan Graves are the hardest-hit. Regional business advice and management support groups estimate that around 25% of growers are in a fragile financial position. Despite crop failure in 2002 and the small harvest in 2003 due to a prolonged heatwave, considerable stocks have built up. There are reports that a growing proportion of Bordeaux A.O.C is now being sold to traders for as low as €850 to €1,000 a barrel. (Source: just-drinks.com)

Christian Moueix warning over 2003

‘Among the 2003 Bordeaux there will be some fantastic wines and some very disappointing wines with almost no taste– completely cooked’ said Christian Moueix, head of Etablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, as well as manager of Château Petrus, Pomerol's most famous growth. during an eight-wine vertical tasting of Château Pétrus organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine in London. And distinguishing among them at the en primeur tastings in late March will be a treacherous trial by tannin. Moueix said that he had already tasted more than 1,000 wines from the most recent vintage – more than ever before at this stage – because quality is so ‘very, very variable’. ‘There will be some complete disasters in 2003, as it’s such a difficult vintage’ he warned. Normally an advocate of crop-thinning and other labour-intensive viticultural practices, he said that last year, by a cruel irony, the ‘more you took care of the vines, the more you made them suffer’. Sunburn rather than water stress was the greatest problem last year. Because of the ‘incredibly high’ tannin levels in the grapes, he highlighted over-extraction as an even greater risk than usual. Explaining that the recent trend at Petrus has been to favor a ‘gentler, softer extraction’ than previously’. Arguing that the vintage ‘should have been approached with delicacy rather than technology’, he said that the total cuvaison had been very short for many of the best wines he had tasted (as short as 11 days, and only 13–17 days at Petrus itself). Noting that the level of tannins is generally far higher than normal – higher even than in the majestic but richly tannic 1986 Château Mouton Rothschild – he confessed: ‘I don’t know how you’re going to face the challenge! It’s exhausting. You get so saturated with tannins that you can’t taste. You could easily misjudge the more elegant wines.’
(Source: Neil Beckett)

A few figures to remember:

World market : in 2002, around 225 million of hectolitres of wine were sold compared to a production of 255 million. The largest producing countries are France, Italy, Spain, USA and Argentina.

Consumption : in France, wine consumption has droped from 100 litres per annum and per capita in the 1960's, to 58 litres in 2001-2002. The current French wine consumption is of 34 million of hectolitres.

Export : in 2002, France exported 15,4 million of hectolitres (half from A.O.C origin). This number was of 16,4 in 1998.

A.O.C : "Appellations d'origine contrôlée" areas represent 57,3 % of the France's vine surface. A.O.C represent 112 000 different growers and count for close to 80 % of the wine industry total revenues. Mentionning the crop varietal on the label is still not permitted in France. (Source: Onivins)

Vineyard sell off 

For several months, the local Rural Land Organization of the Gironde (Safer) has noted a significant increase of the number of offers for selling parts of vineyards within the Bordeaux area. A number of owners "hope to reinflate their cash flow" by selling pieces of their vineyards. Therefore prices have plumetted lately: an Appellation d'origine contrôlée (A.O.C) vineyard of generic Bordeaux is currently traded at 22 860 EUR per ha, compared to the reference price of 36 590 EUR per ha in 2002 (-38%).
(Source: Le Monde)

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