Chateau de Sours drops Majestic Wine deal

Chateau de Sours is calling time on its long-standing rosé supply deal with Majestic Wine.

Chateau de Sours is calling time on its long-standing rosé supply deal with Majestic Wine, after becoming frustrated by levels of discounting and slow payments.

de Sours, in Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux, has informed Majestic this week that it will cease supplying the UK wine retailer with its signature rosé. Decanter.com understands that outstanding orders may not be shipped.

Chateau owner Martin Krajewski said that Majestic’s repeated discounting on his wine ‘no longer reflects the premium quality of our brand’.

de Sours rosé has become one of Majestic’s best sellers, and the two parties have had a supply deal spanning two decades.

‘As Majestic has expanded, they’ve started to go down-market,’ Krajewski told Decanter.com. He said that constant price discounting applied to de Sours rosé ‘makes my wine look cheap’.

‘We are specialist rosé producers,’ said Krajewski. ‘This wine has been highly acclaimed; Jancis Robinson said it kick-started the rosé revolution, and it’s been used as a benchmark for other producers.’

He added that slow payment for orders has contributed to his decision. He said, however, that he will not hold ill feelings towards Majestic, and simply wants to expand business with other clients. de Sours rosé is currently shipped to 25 countries.

A Majestic spokesperson said the retailer is ‘not able to comment on relations with individual suppliers’.

Written by Chris Mercer