Jancis Robinson: 'I hope 2006 fails' June 15, 2007
Adam Lechmere
Jancis Robinson MW has entered the debate over en primeur by slamming the system, saying she hopes the 2006 campaign 'will not be a success.'
Following Decanter's debate between Stephen Brook and Steven Spurrier entitled 'Is En Primeur a scam?', Robinson is outspoken in her condemnation of a system that she says fails the consumer.
Robinson is interviewed by Berry Bros and Rudd's Bordeaux sales director Simon Staples in a wide-ranging podcast just released by the London merchant.
'Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to play this game?' she asks. 'I hope 2006 will not be a success. I hope it will really show the Bordelais the shortcomings of the system.'
She expresses the hope that the negociants will get left with unsaleable stock this year, and Staples agrees that is likely to be the case.
Chateaux are seduced by the new markets of the east, Robinson says. They feel that 'there's lots of money in Russian and Asian pockets – so we can get rid of [the wines] there.'
But, Staples says, the problem with Russia, China and Taiwan is that they tend to have 'no belief' in en primeur futures and buy only 'physical product' – another reason why negociants are going to find their shelves filled with stock.
The danger this year is that negociants will sell at cost to the French supermarkets, which will be putting 2006 on the shelves in September, 'this will undermine the whole system,' Staples says.
The system fails the consumer, Robinson says, because any newcomer to the market could see no sense in paying huge sums of money for a product that may change substantially in two months.
The system whereby barrel samples are assessed up to two years before they are sold is one that Stephen Brook also criticises in detail in the Decanter article.
Staples agrees. Although he is satisfied that chateaux give tasters 'the best representation of what they think the final blend will be', he worries how the wines can change.
He cites colleagues who have just tasted 2006 - two months after en primeur week - and found they have 'added weight and are richer'
'This does concern me. I would love to see [the wine] in the bottle before having to guesstimate how well it does.'
'Is En Primeur a Scam?' appears in the Bordeaux 2007 supplement to the July issue of Decanter magazine, out now.
Vote now on the decanter.com poll: Is the en primeur system fatally flawed?See panel, right
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I could not agree more. A pox on all their Chateau.
Andrew Skroback, New York City, USA
Jancis is right! I always thought the “Primeur” system was built to satisfy wine collectors and not wine lovers (drinkers). Indeed, how can one have a just opinion on a specially selected barrique when the wine is still a baby ? It's time Bordeaux went back to some sense. As for my self, I've given up the “primeur” circus in the early nineties when everything went mad. Congratulations Jancis for being so frank!
Michel Smith Perpignan, France
Let's call "en Primeur" what it really is - speculation for the sake of investment to drive prices higher by the time the wine is released. This has nothing at all to do with a person's love for the wine, appreciation of the winemaker's skill, or anything other than making a quick buck, to use a US phrase.
This goes to the core of why we enjoy wine. What is wine for? Is it to make money? Or is it to enjoy? Is it to be seen as a treasure for the palette? Or is it in the same category as soybeans and pork bellies?
Ms. Robinson - Bravo for putting this nonsense where it belongs: In the rubbish bin of cuisine. And thank you for doing so.
Harry Haff
'Is En Primeur a scam? With the 2006 vintage it is! Too many chateau owners have lost their purpose and their genuine focus for becoming speculators and pseudo traders – sometimes traitors! They give a bad image to this region where well over 80% of the producers have a tough time making a living with their Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur appellations.
I also totally agree that the “En Primeur” tasting does not make much sense as the chateaux give tasters 'the best representation of what they think the final blend will be'. Wines should not be allowed to be tasted by the trade, nor the wine critics, until at least final “assemblage” has been made and, preferably, the wine has been bottled.
Francois L Chandou, Dallas, Texas, USA
Jancis Robinson deservedly receives accolades for her
stance on the Bordeaux en primeur system, but I also want to commend Simon Staples and Berry Bros for their critical evaluation, given that a substantial part of
their business derives fron wine futures.
What goes around comes around. Not every vintage equates to a 2005 and loyalty should be appreciated and cultivated.
Andrew Howe
Having just returned from Bordeaux and Vin Expo 2007, I can say with confidence that many players outside of the en primeur system are doing their level best to undermine it as well by selling some fantastic wines direct to merchants. Look to the Cotes du Blaye and Bourg, Fronsac, and Cotes du Castillon for these gems. One producer I met in Castillon has vines at the edge of his property that are hanging in St. Emilion yet the price value difference in that one meter of survey difference is outrageous. Thanks for the straight truth Jancis, and Stephen Brook.
Tim Shannon, Seattle, Washington, USA
My experience dealing with En Primeur in a prior life was positive as it was the only way to purchase Bordeaux growths outside the main stream or traditional markets of the northern hemisphere. The blunt reality of working within the system from Australia trying to sourcing wines for customers and consumers was that you had one chance to secure a particular wine or selection of wines within that campaign period.
If you got what you were after that was great, even when you experienced greatly increased price rises at each tranche. If you missed out securing your desired growths and hit list, the likely hood of that wine becoming available again even with an exorbitant increase in price as very slim to almost nil due to the rapid and ongoing demand and interest of Bordeaux in many western and new emerging markets in the Asian region.
This has been the case since the '95 En Primeur campaign which from then it became a downward spiral of less and less being available to the point where buyers and collectors were pushed off shore to purchase their collection in other wine markets if they were lucky enough to find it or they simple turned their interests in an other directions mainly Italy and Italian Cabernet.
Its still the case today even in an even moderately demanded year for a genuine follower of Bordeaux you simply don't have the option for waiting for it to be released in the general wholesale arena as most likely simple won't be there, so in my opinion the system does have some relevance, even to simple stimulate interest. It's just the difference of the market here and distribution. Personally I don't care as there's plenty of interesting other vinous things to discover.
Mark Bolton, d'Arenberg, Australia
I was stunned at what can only be described as a somewhat bitchy comment from Jancis Robinson: “I hope 2006 will not be a success”. To wish ill of a campaign like 2006 En Primeur is an extraordinary and petulant comment from someone of her undoubted experience, dare I say, maturity. This campaign clearly has many faults but these need to be addressed by the Châteaux owners; négoçiants and other potentially influential bodies like the U.G.C. Back in late April I wrote to Patrick Maroteaux (U.G.C.Chairman) expressing concern about the timing and longevity of the Bordeaux campaign. His polite reply was along the lines that “Yes I agree with you but we are not going to do anything about it.” Very French! I have had brief discussions with some renowned 2nd Growth properties downwards and some of the biggest Bordeaux négoçiants; along with many London-based and U.K. wine merchants and brokers. None is perfectly happy about the overall situation. Short margins for a campaign that spans such unnecessary lengths clearly make little business sense.
Then some merchants like John Armit who appears happy to sell some 200 or so cases of Gruaud-Larose at £ 260 which if a customer pays by American Express will basically leave virtually nil profit. To shot-out onto the market at barely a nominal margin a particularly successful example of this otherwise tough vintage is to me a bizarre decision. Just to maintain one's allocation perhaps but it is a good wine and not to make a normal profit has put lopsided pressure on other merchants when pricing. On that early price many merchants were left scratching their heads and thinking should I even bother with this campaign? If one was talking about an easy-seller like Lynch-Bages who produced 6 desirable vintages in a row and then the 7th was a disaster, fair enough in positioning oneself to maintain an allocation but this is clearly not the case with Gruaud-Larose. At the end of the day what's the point of dabbling in En Primeur if you are not going to make a sensible and fair profit?
For every property that in my mind came-out at too high a price (Cantenac-Brown; de Fargues; Clos-Fourtet; Gazin, Pape-Clément; Canon-La-Gaffelière; Troplong-Mondot) I personally see a greater number that produced classic Cabernet wines that will have the ability to evolve gracefully over 15-25 years and with most of these at a mere £ 15, £ 16, £ 17 a bottle firstly how can anyone say (all of) Bordeaux is expensive and how can Jancis really wish these particular Châteaux owners ill? (Les Ormes de Pez; Lafon-Rochet; Phélan-Ségur; Haut-Batailley; d'Armailhac; Gruaud-Larose; Lagrange to name the most obvious.) I visited pretty much all of these properties in early April and I am grateful for those successes and their sensible opening price.
Also credit to Gruaud-Larose, one of the traditional 2nd Growths, for releasing their price comparatively early on the 2nd of May. Opposite to this we see Jean-Guillaume Prats make a comment on the Decanter Blog like: “…how do I know what to do when none of our peers is showing which way the wind is blowing?” – honestly, are we not just waiting for Robert Parker to release his all too influential scores but the “great” man has also stunted the ability of long-established Bordeaux names from forming their own opinion and deciding how much they should ask for a wine that they have toiled to produce? These people should know to the centime what they should be asking for their wine. One of the very few others to commit early to releasing a price without deference to his neighbours is Anthony Barton. Good news at least in Saint-Julien but elsewhere I think many of the French need to sharpen-up their act on opinions, pricing and above all to make En Primeur a shorter and more concise campaign.
Some 13 weeks on and the wrong side of Vinexpo we are still waiting for the prices on the First-Growths and the likes of Las Cases, Angélus, Pavie, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Figeac, and La Mission Haut-Brion. Several words for this but frustrating, annoying, costly, unnecessary spring to mind!
Personally I have been frustrated by more than a handful of Bordelais in this (and the 2005) En Primeur campaign but am grateful to many who have firstly made good to great wines and secondly been happy to “play ball”. Now if you have calmed down Jancis, do you still want the 2006 En Primeur to fail; this vintage in isolation; or En Primeur as a flawed system for buying Bordeaux?
Maybe Sarkozy has more to do in France than he bargained for!
Tuggy Meyer, Huntsworth Wine Company, London, UK
En Primeur has been around for a long time and served Producers and Merchants well for many years. The problem is that in the last few years the system has opened up for Journalists and Consumers with the result that it has become totally market driven.
Auction headlines. The wine media and people with more money than wine sense encouraged by influential wine critics or merchants using comments like 'big guns' , 'blue chip wines', etc have all contributed in creating today's speculative, rapidly changing wine market.
But infact, as Jancis says, what we are seeing is the creation of a two band 'en primeur' market. The super luxurious first growths and wannabees on one side and the rest of the classed growths on the other.
I have a feeling that the properties in the top end will continue to distance themselves from the rest, both in terms of price and idealodgy. Somehow, I am having more and more difficulties associating Mouton, Cheval, Petrus etc. with the wine business. Business...yes. Wine?
Having had the privelege of visiting Cheval Blanc on many occasions, both when Mr Hebrard was in charge and under recent ownership, I cannot help think that Pierre Lurton is now directing a financial institution rather than a wine growing estate.
A wine growing friend who recently had to sell his classed estate because of family pressures for more financial returns told me.. and I quote ' I am a wine grower. I make wine and make a decent enough profit for everyone concerned. To make more profit I will have to change my life. I am a happy wine grower'.
So, can we blame the first growths for going the market way? I for one am very sorry that I will not be able to enjoy their wines as many times as I used to but I am not about to dispair....there are plenty of other Bordeaux classed growths which I can afford and will give me a life time of pleasure.
That is unless people like Jancis and Stephen Brooks manage to put some sense into the market..........but I doubt it. Michael Tabone, Malta
I would like to answer to Tuggy Meyer from Huntsworth wine Company who says that Cos d'Estournel does not know what to do and his following the trend (the wind). His statements are inaccurate and controversial. He is using some of my words out side of their context.
Cos was the first super second to release its wines in 2006 before Vinexpo not playing the game to wait until everyone is fed up. Cos was followed immediately by Pichon. Ducru, Las Cases and Palmer have even asked higher prices than Cos more than 10 days afterwards.
I just want Decanter readers to know the facts even if they disagree with Bordeaux pricing policy this year.
Jean-Guillaume Prats, Château Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe, France
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I could not agree more. A pox on all their Chateau.
