Best of Bordeaux

ff

erentiates between Grand

Cellar of Pichon Baron

37

Crus Classés and Premier Grands Crus Classés A and B, and is updated around

once a decade. Still clear?

The 1855 classification is first and foremost a historical legacy with obliga-

tions: not a single estate under that classification currently fails to produce

at least good and generally excellent wines, with the same also applying to

Saint-Emilion Premiers Crus Classés and Graves Crus Classés at the very least.

Whether or not historical classifications can or should be updated remains open

to question: to me, it is like wanting to banish Picasso or Braque from the pan-

theon of fine art because their works were not painted on an iPad. The fact that

Lafite is still Lafite and Margaux is still Margaux does not prevent any wines with

lower classifications or no classification at all from tasting even better than them

on occasion, but this alters nothing about the historic context and significance

of either. I do not believe in objectivity when it comes to art or top wine – this

drinkable product of agricultural cultivation and handcrafted production that

arouses so much passion. Objectivity is the first step on the road to cultural fas-

cism.

38

History Global trade

The power of the brand

Between 1700 and 1870, Bordeaux was synonymous with great, elegant red

wines and also a new colour (Bordeaux red), all of which quickly conquered the

world. Dry white wine also continued to be produced, but in the 19th century

in particular had to give ground to the production of exclusive sweet wines en-

joyed by more than just female foodies. This utterly blissful period – when the

vineyards of the Gironde were literally bursting at the seams and in addition to

the true top terroirs also occupied soils that would have been better used for

growing corn – was brought to a terrible end by the phylloxera crisis, stock mar-

ket crash and two world wars. This was a long drawn-out tragedy, as the region

constantly fought back but was ultimately forced to surrender. By the late 1940s,

Grand Crus existed only in memory in many areas. The Bordeaux wine as we

know it today is not centuries old, but is in fact now only barely reaching retire-

ment age. Bordeaux's return to its current lofty heights began around the turn of

the millennium, with the enthusiastic adoption of new technology which in the

best cases works hand-in-hand with age-old experience, and observance of the

golden rule that if you want to stay healthy and keep chalking up profits then

you have to master the art of selling your products, which requires international

distribution along a well-oiled, seamless chain stretching from the owner or a

director of an estate, who is responsible for the wine's quality and typicity (i.e. its

recognition factor), via merchants and wholesalers to general agents in distant

lands. This is how it works in Bordeaux: producers make wine from a selected

terroir using specially adapted grape varieties, which when blended ensure a

very particular style whose key characteristics are body, density and tannins

which develop as time passes. This style is elevated to the position of a system

and a brand which insists on its uniqueness. The producers cannot keep all the

profit for themselves, as A) they would be the only people willing and able to

brag about its uniqueness and B) they would be unable to a

ff

ord a global dis-

tribution network which is expensive to maintain, multiplies production costs

and forces the profit curve into a downward trend. So they have twenty, thirty

or fifty merchants on hand who must all sing the same tune for advertising and

distribution purposes. In return, they must be paid, which is no problem at all as

they simply increase the purchase price.

As investment in a brand is only worthwhile if it is spread out consistently

over a long period of time, clever merchants corner the market on certain wines

(those viewed as the most legendary, most expensive or most sought-after) be-

fore harvesting has even finished. This is what is now called ‘vente en primeur',

presented with great fanfare in the spring after the harvest. It involves purchase

via subscription, previously called ‘vente sur souche' or ‘option' and simply

means hogging the wines before they have even been bottled. This brings a

third partner into play, namely the broker or courtier, acting as a link between

Château Montrose

41

Brand and style History

estates and merchants. Why not sell direct? Quite simply because the broker

is a neutral party representing the interests of both partners, who would other-

wise be trying to get the better of one another. Brokers themselves do not sell

wines but simply take a fixed margin of four per cent, so it is in their interest to

regularly procure su

ffi

cient quantities, correctly assess the sales situation, the

demand and also the quality of the wine, and in the best cases justify a high

price (which helps the owner) whilst also ensuring that the wine remains af-

fordable to trade partners, who would otherwise go bankrupt or take their busi-

ness elsewhere. And to prevent brokers from deciding to engage in dumping

and undermine prices rather than following the unwritten rule of adhering to

a price guideline, sly sellers have been known to offer their daughters' hands

in marriage: the world of top Bordeaux is one huge family and solidarity rules

among family members, at least o

ffi

cially. Despite all the gloomy predictions,

this system which is so often written off has never functioned so well as over

the past twenty years, with the piper being paid (whether we like it or not) by

Bordeaux fans like us all over the world.

The theatre of aging

The road to success is a rocky one made of gravel, up to ten metres deep. The

benefits of this soil are that it drains water yet still always remains damp, is a

good heat store on frosty nights, requires the two or three grape varieties which

for centuries have proven their ability to root properly in the capricious climate,

and allows the grapes to ripen at leisure, so slowly that they become crisp and

thick-skinned, assimilate sugar (but not too much) and break down acidity be-

fore over-ripeness and rot set in. Wine pressed from these grapes and drunk

immediately turns out ink black, tart and almost undrinkable, tasting of grape

stems and pomace – ugh – one for the masochists. Instead, you would be better

sticking to fruity Burgundy, meaty Spanish examples or wines from the areas

around Saint-Emilion or Pomerol, which have smoother tannins (other than all

the New World copies which are now thankfully becoming rarer: the fashion

for over-extracted wines which reached its peak between 1995 and 2005 has

faded as quickly as it arrived). However, if you allow great Bordeaux from these

special soils to mature then it becomes unbeatable in terms of balance, airiness,

elegance and finesse, making it ideal for speculation, as great Bordeaux (particu-

larly Cabernet-based wines) goes on and on and keeps as well in a cellar as gold

bars, only tasting much better. And because modern winery technology now

means that the wines taste pleasant earlier but lose none of their aging ability,

great Bordeaux has remained ultra-modern and the whole world cannot get

enough of it. However, not even God knows how many cases are sold and drunk

and how many are stored and hoarded – perhaps because Peter is speculating

42

with Bordeaux on the Lord's behalf. If the flyers advertising special offers and

premium-price cellar clearances which land in our mailboxes at times of crisis

are anything to go by, there is no shortage of great Bordeaux.

Profit calculations

Contrary to popular belief, there is no real correlation between wine quality

and selling price in Bordeaux. ‘Année vert, année cher', the elderly can be heard

to say: the less there is available, the more expensive the wine becomes. Bor-

deaux is a prime example of the law of supply and demand, and thus a strong-

hold of assets. The fact that Engels was a fan of Margaux (as claimed by Karl

Marx's daughter) is a peculiar irony in the history of winemaking, as speculation

with great Bordeaux does pay off: anyone who has gambled with skill over the

past 20 years will have pocketed healthy profits. Running a Grand Cru is there-

fore a rewarding enterprise – to a varying extent. Over the past hundred years,

the average value created by actual winemaking (including on top estates) has

been a meagre five to eight per cent. Grand Crus are monuments of wine his-

tory, so everything looks better if we examine the ‘valeur vénale', or estate value,

which (depending on the time of the purchase) can increase by up to 1,000%

not including investment, sometimes causing inheritance taxes to rocket and

also creating high levels of debt if inheritances are divided up. However, for

those who bought and sold at the wrong time it can also mean a -50% loss.

Nevertheless, if considered over the past twenty years, the top estates are true

treasure troves. Translated into bottle terms, no one in Bordeaux can produce

wines for less than 1.5 euros per bottle, and top quality for less than 5 euros is

an illusion. However, nowhere do production costs rise much above 20 euros,

which allows fortunate producers to gild many taps, employ many gardeners,

dig many pools, sponsor many artists and much more: in terms of the prices cur-

rently being applied (and depending on their level of debt, as mentioned above),

in good years this means profits of 50% or more. But remember, this only ap-

plies to the top 20 or 30 most famous estates – wineries in the 40th to 500th

positions have similarly high production costs but invest considerably more in

marketing and sales whilst having to sell their wines at significantly reduced

margins. As in most other high-quality wine regions, the widest range of per-

fectly respectable wines in Bordeaux from a quality perspective can be found at

between 20 and 40 euros. Depending on the expenditure incurred, profits in the

red wine sector range from moderate to good, but can start plummet in a flash

when loans take their toll, crisis looms on the global market and the tax authori-

ties are at the door. The situation is equally fraught at the other end of the scale:

the 500th to 1,000th positions are occupied by wines whose style has nothing

in common with the Grand Crus but which are still called Bordeaux, and whose

History The theatre of aging

Barrels at Pédesclaux

44

History Profit calculations

existence is therefore based on maintaining the pretence that they are similar to

a Grand Cru but available for much less money.

For Bordeaux simply suggests Grand Cru and implies a complicated, exces-

sive, high-quality wine. Instead of unsuccessfully tagging along behind this idi-

otic ideal, winemakers either side of the Grand Cru line (which is a world of its

own) would be better off setting their minds to producing good, fresh, fun wines

for cheerful consumption as an increasing number of winemakers are now do-

ing – modern wines for everyone, rather than being forced to struggle between

heaven and hell at the limit of profitability. If Tuscany can do it, then why can't

Bordeaux – in the Côtes or Entre-Deux-Mers – do the same? Every month Gi-

ronde winemakers throw in the towel, countless producers are surviving by

the skin of their teeth, and average prices in Bordeaux are still no better than

in Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône. Don't forget that Bordeaux floods the global

market with around a billion (1,000,000,000) bottles of wine every year, more

than 90% of which have nothing in common with Grand Crus, and the mere fact

that some of this is described as Bordeaux Supérieur implies that there must be

plenty of ‘Bordeaux Inférieur'!

Thanks to the Internet, we now have the ability to compare the prices of

world-famous brands in an instant. Online trade in Bordeaux is flourishing (and

for the time being is not upsetting the traditional system, just traditional Bor-

deaux merchants). Grands Crus are available via numerous channels, and the

margins that an intermediary can make are on average relatively modest (un-

less they go into cellaring and create added value from long aging). To this can

be added competition from major (French) distributors who are increasingly

seeking to circumvent the primeur-courtier-merchant system and use Grands

Crus as lures. Special offers arrive in our mailboxes and the (executive) staff

of Bordeaux Grands Crus are the first to run to the supermarket. Things look

rather different at the other end of the scale, with rules that bring to mind the

ills of the agricultural economy. Producers are receiving barely enough money

to survive, sellers are trusting in the power of a recognisable name and fanning

the flames of misunderstanding until they are blazing, slashing the margins of

wines bought cheap which have to compete with Grands Crus, and once again

wine enthusiasts are pulling chestnuts out of the fire and getting their fingers

burnt on illusory bargains. And because the rest of the wine world grumbles

about Bordeaux in public but emulates it in private, there are very few real al-

ternatives.

45

The Bordeaux-makers History

The Bordeaux makers

Well, first there are the North Africans. Although they do not drink great Bor-

deaux, they play a major role in producing it, for which they are paid a pittance.

They are also Muslims, which poses no problems, as the Bordelais have always

shared Old Fritz's view that everyone should be holy in their own way. Although

Bordeaux has always been Catholic, it has successfully traded with Israelites,

Protestants and Anglicans who had become the ultimate controllers of global

trade, and its vines are now cultivated by Muslims, particularly in the historic

left bank regions of Bordeaux, largely by (local) women. Despite the high unem-

ployment rate, your average Frenchman does not want to get his hands dirty

with hard vineyard labour. Men sit on tractors and drive full barrels through the

winery. Manual work such as foliage treatment, vine pruning, hoeing between

the canes where the machines cannot reach, and sorting has always been per-

formed by the wives, and the men are happy that way. ‘Petites façons' (‘small

work'), was what they called the work of female hands, namely breaking up the

soils between the vines with a pickaxe, whilst the men performed the ‘big work'

consisting of clattering proudly through the vines with a team of oxen and whis-

tling to the girls slaving away in the dirt below. Tribute should also be paid to all

of the female figures past and present who have accompanied their husbands

in the vineyard. They also play a leading role during the harvest, at the sorting

table, in the o

ffi

ce (who else ensures that orders are ful

fi

lled, samples are sent,

visitors are welcomed, coffee is brewed and thousands of other ‘minor details'

are taken care of?) and even at the head of the company or in the cellar: the Fac-

ulty of Oenology in Bordeaux now has more female students than male, which

is as it should be.

What makes Bordeaux so unique is the fact that production on an almost in-

dustrial scale began here in very early times. This made the division of labour

and specialisation essential, demanded a large amount of technical know-how,

and soon required its own oenological faculty: techniques such as sulphuring

barrels, injecting copper sulphate, modern pruning and organic lactic acid deg-

radation were discovered, studied or further developed in Bordeaux, in recent

years by researchers and in earlier eras by experienced directors of well-known

estates and a host of nameless vineyard workers and cellar masters – the collec-

tive memory of Bordeaux winemaking covers centuries. Estates are and were

expansive – by the 18th century Léoville already had 200 hectares of vines, and

the six Premiers Crus on the left bank together produce a million bottles a year.

If an estate owner proudly explains to an awed visitor the tricks he has used

to get the latest vintage to the wine press but then cannot find the light switch

on the tour, and praises the beauty of his neighbour's vineyards whilst visiting

the terraces, there is no need for concern, as he is being watched at a distance

by the backstage crew, all competent, knowledgeable and just happy that the

Star oenologist Michel Rolland

48

History Division of labour

owner lets them follow their instincts. What would Lafite be without its director

Charles Chevallier, Yquem without Pierre Lurton or winemaker Sandrine Gar-

baye, Pichon Baron without Jean-René Matignon, Cantenac Brown without José

Sansfin to name but a few, and what would all of these figures be without the

hardworking bees and drones buzzing away behind them? The owners who can

be found in the cellar of their Grand Cru even when the press is no longer there

(I am thinking in particular of Lucien Guillemet at Boyd Cantenac) are excep-

tions to the rule and of no detriment to quality – in fact, quite the opposite. In

the best cases, the owner and director develop a form of symbiosis as at Pontet

Canet for example, where the dynamic and enterprising Alfred Tesseron and

the dour tinkerer Jean Michel Comme have formed an almost ideal business

marriage which has now inspired a wine whose like the estate (and the world)

has never before seen.

And consultant oenologists? Without them nothing would happen, and the

most important are not always the most famous. It is impossible to avoid the Pe-

ynaud legend, not so much because of his research work as because of his ability

to describe wine in words used by no one before him. The greatest, most price-

less merit of a Michel Rolland is the fact that he has enticed and encouraged

winemakers to head into their vineyards and really taste their grapes in order

to better understand their substance and potential. Although tales of Stéphane

Derenoncourt may have been exaggerated and occasionally become the stuff

of legends, it is thanks to him (among others) that Saint-Emilion now has 200

good wines rather than just 20. However, the nuts and bolts of winemaking is

also carried out by many others, the Dubourdieus, Boissenots, Pasquets, Nav-

arres, Olliviers and the rest, men and women who want nothing more than to

do good work in the background, whether as researchers, analysts, laboratory

technicians or consultants striving to create the perfect blend.

There can be no theatrical success without critics or an audience. What is

the value of critics? Without them there would be absolutely no activity in the

English-speaking world. Parker and co. remain the weather gods of Bordeaux. In

Europe their importance and in

fl

uence (positive and negative!) is rather mod-

est, although some dream of following in Parker's footsteps. This is as it should

be – good critics should have an opinion, which you may or may not share. The

important members of a theatre-going audience are not those who go to a per-

formance because they want to be seen, but rather those who go because they

are interested in the play and form an opinion with the help of critics (rather

than one single critic). Anyone who reads between the lines and deduces that

you can only be a Bordeaux connoisseur by being whizzed seven times around

oenological university in a chauffeur-driven limousine with a minibar has to-

tally missed the point. Let's not leave Bordeaux to the speculators and captains