Major Chinese retailer ditches Left Bank Bordeaux

Daniel,Wow Very cool to have your voice back. Congrats.So here's my question, if tizoronhal tastings of like wines is not the best way for a critic to attack their job, what is? Particularly when the critic feels a responsibility to provide readers with reviews of numerous wines on the market?You also wrote, Talented, experienced tasters recognize the challenges of the process and they try to recalibrate. I've always assumed that this is exactly what the best critics do. I'm wondering if you think it is a fool's errand to even try to do the recalibration.Setting aside logistics and time constraints, what if a critic, with great access to wines, decided to review 25 wines per day five days per week? That would be 6,000 wines per year. And what if they decided on tasting days to taste 5 wine at a time with at least an hour in between each flight? Do you think this would help with the re-calibration issue?Again, welcome to the crowded blogosphere.Cheers,Tom .

When will Bordeaux learn that their greed has decimated their business in the USA THE average wine shop does not carry their top wines any more as they cost to much and people are tired of this happening againg and again.

Finally! Someone came to their senses in the Chinese Market. I applaud them for not wanting to drive the price any higher than it is now. For us common folk, we cannot afford the bdx's now.

David: How are you? Sounds like you have landed a great role, and I wish you the best. As to your point about Bordeaux, couldn't agree more. Any product that is elevated as quickly as "investment wine" can become a poor investment just as easlily. Keep up the good work.

http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/529037/aussino-publishes-clarification-on-bordeaux-position

Believe Bordeaux wine merchants are smart enough to understanding the leadership position of Aussino and would not be misleaded by this article and comments.

Hello Jane, I believe you totally misunderstood china market and Aussino Cellars. Your article is misleading readers. Aussino has been put signicant efforts in promoting Bordeaux wines and establish their market shares, there is no reason they will give up the left bank. Alternatively, I can see they work hard in every brand they are representing.

Well done, Grace!

The rapid growth in demand for classed growths in China has made it all too easy for the chateaux owners to raise prices year after year in the knowledge they could always find a willing buyer at any price.

Aussino's decision, albeit modest, is a timely shot across the bow for Bordeaux. While it's true that China may be relatively new to buying Bordeaux they are certainly not new to business.

I would advise my friends in Bordeaux to enjoy spoils of the astronomic prices they are asking this year but to be prepared to learn a few lessons in business from China in the not too distant future.

David Andrew
Wine Consultant, Beijing.
(Former Global Wine Director, Costco, USA)

HEllo, This is a bomb from China. A well needed cold shower to cool down some grand cru owners. Chinese do not go for anything and their fast learning is what impresses me the most after 10 years here..

You can read those quotes and come up with many different conclusions. One could be... "Bordeaux wine is huge in China. Why buy from expensive chateaus when we can get a private label and sell more, because it is cheaper, with the same markup."

This is hopefully good news for the large number of smaller Bordeaux producers who definitely need a boost. There are many good entry-mid range wines out there whose owners are struggling...watch out for competition from the Languedoc though...

That's the thing. Have you ever been to China and have been able to check the retail prices offered by retailers sometimes (not only on websites)? It's just crazy. They just take advantage of the ignorance of many Chinese about wine and the fact that they are brand driven to charge crazy prices. French wines are automatically paid at a premium, especially if it comes from Bordeaux.

With the Chinese getting more educated and aware of prices of first growth for instance, Chinese retailers realize that they should make money with other wines.

Some right bank wines are already quite expensive. Take Petrus, Le Pin, Angelus, etc. It's not because a case of these wines is not at the level of a case of Lafite that they are not expensive already.

I guess they will start one day on Spanosh wines, God help us as it is a secret very well kept for those who drink wine on a daily basis . I also go to a lot of tastings, hope they don´t discover Pingus to soon or the great wines of Mauro, and Priorat

This is typical of these big Cies in China who have absolutely no idea on how to market Fine Wines, especially when it comes to open market wines.
They've been very good at creating a market with the help of big brands with important marketing support like Penfolds and alike. They apply high margins on their GCCs because they are used to having exclusivity and they do so with the rest of their portfolio. Their structural costs are high to finance their expansion and they need to spend a lot to gain new clients or keep existing ones. The competition is not always won by who will sell at the lowest price but quite often by who will give the more support, therefore spending on training, rebate, marketing etc.

There are plenty of left bank wines in the Graves area
(like ours Chateau du Seuil available from Ruby Red , Shanghai )that are affordable , authentic and excellent ! Try us out ! PLease do not judge Bordeaux by its very out of touch 2 % . The remaining 98 % are real people like myself who thinbk it is crazy when a bottle of wine is the same price as a worker's monthly salary .....

Dear left bank Bordeaux producers,
You can start groveling for your ex-customers to take you back anytime you're ready.

Aussino Cellars must have a good deal from Petrus, CB etc

Last I checked (a few minutes ago), there are plenty of Classified Left Bank Bordeaux wines listed on the Aussino website, which prices are more than 100% than what you can buy in U.K. or even Hong Kong. Merchants typically charge 10% commission, but the Chinese merchants want 100%, so I guess that makes it difficult to sell higher priced Classified Growths. However, Right Bank wines are usually even more expensive, and Burgundy more than Bordeaux. So, why not make it easier buy completely stop selling French wines all together?

Bordeaux wines are about 70% of our turnover. We hope that this will not be a general change of the Chinease demand, otherwise it will create a similar situation with the wines of the Right Bank and Chinease consumers will then divert (again) their consumption into other wine regions than Bordeaux. We also hope Bordeaux Châteaux owners will invest part of the big money they made for promoting their wines to help to maintain demand of Bordeaux wines.