More and more champagne houses mention the disgorging date on the label. A champagne often spends several years in the cool cellar of the producer, resting on the dead yeast from the second fermentation. Removing the lees is called disgorging. It is quite fashionable today to put this date on the label, along with information [...]
Tag Archives | business
Saint Emilion and Stradivarius for lunch
In late October we were invited by Bernard Magrez to a luxurious lunch at Le Cinq, star restaurant at the Hôtel Georges V in Paris. We were there to celebrate several things. Bernard Magrez’ Château Fombrauge in Saint Emilion had just been given its new classification, Grand Cru Classé, and he had only a few [...]
Wine marketing or luxury silliness: Penfolds’ The Ampoule
In marketing you can find a lot of very strange and curious ideas, not least in the wine sector since wine marketing is very restricted in most countries. But the latest idea from Penfolds must be high up on the list among the most silly things and most over the top ideas. Or have I [...]
Beginning of the end for the primeur sales? Chateau Latour quits
Talking about primeur wines (previous note on Lafite), Château Latour has announced its intention to stop selling its wines en primeur, that is to say, in spring following the harvest. Vintage 2011 will be the last vintage they sell in this manner. Instead they will sell their wines when they are ready to be drunk. [...]
Lafite Rothschild 50 % cheaper than last year. A bargain?
In early April journalists and wine merchants tasted the new vintage, the 2011, during one week in Bordeaux. This is called the primeur tastings. The wines are not ready to drink yet, of course, they still have at least a year and probably more to spend in oak barrels, but this is the Bordeaux way [...]
Prices on Bordeaux primeurs mostly going up
Prices for Bordeaux primeurs are mainly going up. Again. Is that a cause for concern? No, we argue. Most if not all chateau in Bordeaux will have announced their prices for the primeurs 2010 by now although many of the “releases” seems to have been done later than usual. Perhaps that is because they wanted [...]
Prices on Bordeaux primeurs mostly going up
Prices for Bordeaux primeurs are mainly going up. Again. Is that a cause for concern? No, we argue. Most if not all chateau in Bordeaux will have announced their prices for the primeurs 2010 by now although many of the “releases” seems to have been done later than usual. Perhaps that is because they wanted [...]
Wine sales on internet up 30%, in France
According to recent statistics wine sales on the internet grew with 30% compared to last year and reached 176 M euro in France. The increase is higher than the growth in general e-shopping, that grew on average with 24%. But it is still only a minor part of all wine that is bought on the [...]
Biodynamic management training!?
Biodynamic winemaking is a subject that elicits very diverging views (and that is often misunderstood). Some wine commentators (and winemakers) are totally convinced that the sometimes strange principles work, while others seem to approach the issue as a crusade with an enemy (“the non-scientific biodynamists”) that must be crushed. Now there is a new twist [...]
The world market in wine in pocket format
Global Wine Markets, 1961 to 2009: A Statistical Compendium is the name of a recently published book on the international trade in wine, published by The Wine Economics Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. It is filled with all sorts of statistics on the global wine market. You can buy the printed book for [...]
A Perfect 10?
Mother Nature was unkind in 2010 – an earthquake in Haiti, floods in Pakistan and an unpronounceable volcano in Iceland. There was huge financial trauma; many are still recovering. But commodities and collectibles – especially wine – have carried on regardless. The art market – or at least Damien Hirst’s reputation – wobbled before the [...]
Record price for vineyard in Bordeaux
A chateau neighbouring Chateau Haut Brion has been sold at a record price. It is Chateau Les Carmes Huat Brion that has been bought by a Bordeaux based real estate company. The vineyards are 4.7 hectares, there is a park of 3 ha and a chateau of course. The vines are classified as AOC Pessac-Léognan. [...]
Is it outrageous that a bottle of wine can cost 1000€ or more?
You can ask the question differently (many do): “should we all be able to buy e.g. classed growth claret at reasonably affordable prices?” surprisingly often you get the answer “yes” to both questions. Many seem to be upset about the extraordinary prices that the best (or at least most expensive) wines in e.g. Bordeaux have [...]
Delicatessen and wine shop in Bordeaux
We are in no way neutral in this case: Chateau Lestrille is a small, family-owned chateau in the Entre-deux-Mers region in Bordeaux, one of those “small and little known”, as opposed to “big and classed growths”. But this is the category where you can find many well-made and interesting wines at very reasonably prices (certainly [...]
Constellation sells wine business, loses top slot
Constellation is the world’s biggest wine producer, as mentioned elsewhere in the Brief. However, they are now set to lose the top spot to Fosters or E&J Gallo. Constellation is in the process of selling its British, Australian and South African wine business. The buyer is a Champ Private Equity. The price tag is said [...]
Christmas gift tip: champagne for sale
Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck are two champagne houses both belonging to Remy Cointreau SA. According to Bloomberg, Remy is now looking to sell the two houses. The champagne business made an operating loss of 4 m euro for the 12 months to March this year. Remy Cointreau wants to focus on its core spirits activity [...]
The Chinese wine market: a specialists’ blog
Many wine producers are betting the future on the Chinese wine market these days. The export sales to most countries are weak, but China seems to have caught an appetite for wine. According to the latest figures, if they are correct, China is now the biggest export market for Bordeaux wine, ahead of the UK. [...]
Cognac Renault acquired by Altia from Pernod Ricard for € 10 M
Cognac Renault is a brand that is mainly known on the Scandinavian market. Best known is the premium brand Renault Carte Noire, popularly called Black Renault. Altia Corporation, controlled by the Finnish state, has acquired the brand and some stock from Pernod Ricard for 10 million euro. (The acquisition is pending approval from authorities.) We [...]
Bordeaux gets new boss
Georges Haushalter has been named new President of CIVB, the producers’ marketing and promotion as well as co-ordination organisation in Bordeaux. CIVB is a very powerful and influential organisation in the wine world. They have a multi million budget for information and marketing world wide and have a great influence over what happens in Bordeaux. [...]
The world’s biggest wine producers = 15% of the total
There is a handful of very large wine producers in the world, who together represent a quite big proportion of world wine production. It is not always obvious who they are since they sell their wines under a variation of different brands and rarely under their own name. that is perhaps not very surprising since [...]
Chateau Rollan de By up for sale?
Chateau Rollan de By is a chateau in the northern Médoc that has in recent years acquired a certain fame, no doubt not to an insignificant degree thanks to the marketing skills of the owner, Jean Guyon. According to La Revue des Vins de France Guyon has put up Rolland de By for sale, and [...]
The future of Bordeaux with César Compadre, part 1 [F] – BKWine TV
New video on BKWine TV: César Compadre is France’s only journalist at a daily paper dedicated 100% to wine and spirits. He writes for the Sud-Ouest paper, based in Bordeaux. BKWine TV met César this spring, and who better to talk to about the future of Bordeaux? We talked with César Compadre about how he [...]
Why is Bordeaux 2009 so expensive?
One can with good reason wonder why it is that Bordeaux 2009 is so expensive. It is the most expensive vintage ever, in spite of an international wine crisis, with prices reaching dizzying heights: Yquem €540; Lafite, Mouton, Margaux €550; Haut-Brion, Latour €600; Cheval Blanc €700; Ausone €800; Le Pin €1050. Per bottle. Long before [...]
The Future of Bordeaux with Cesar Compadre, part 2 [F] – BKWine TV
Here’s the second part of the interview with Cesar Compadre on the future of Bordeaux. The video is in French. (Part 1 of the interview with Cesar Compadre on the Future of Bordeaux is here.) Google Translate of the description: Interview with Cesar Compadre (Part II) on the current situation and the future of Bordeaux. [...]
Bordeaux prices continue up for 2009s?
More and more “release prices” have been announced from the chateaux in Bordeaux, for the wines that were tasted a couple of months ago at the “primeurs”. The tendency seems to be upwards, sometimes a lot. However, it is a little bit early to judge the total picture. But from what has been seen so [...]
France falling behind on traditional markets, but winning in Asia?
What do buyers, retailers and other trade people think about the evolution of the wine market? Wine Trade Monitor (WTM) by Sopexa tries to answer that question. Sopexa is a French marketing consultancy that has for the second year running made this ambitious survey of the wine trade. They focus on the 14 biggest markets [...]
Wine as an investment – good or bad?
Every once in a while we read about how good and how safe wine is as an investment. Not seldom it is written by someone who is offering services to potential “investors”. Felix Salmon, financial journalist at Reuters, is of a different opinion. When he read a recently published paper on the merits of wine [...]
Hard times for wine producers in Napa Valley
Even in Napa Valley there can be hard times. Some 10 wineries are about to change hands this year and next in order to avoid bankruptcy or closing. Two years ago there was none in a similar situation. This is the worst down-turn in 20 years, it is said. Ten producers is perhaps not a [...]
Crushpad expands in Europe
In the last Brief we cited an unconfirmed rumour that Crushpad was closing its European operations. Not only was the rumour unconfirmed, it proved to be entirely wrong. Michael Brill, CEO of Crushpad Inc, and Stephen Bolger, in charge of Crushpad Europe, both confirm with force that Crushpad as ha continued commitment to Europe. Not [...]
Not fun in Champagne
As expected 2009 was a difficult year for Champagne – the wine district that otherwise over recent time has suffered very little (none, to be precise) of the hardship that most wine regions have seen. Sales were down with “only” 9%. Some earlier predictions pointed in the direction of -25% or more but that was [...]
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