The good news is that en primeur bordeaux prices have been slashed by as much as 40%. The bad news is that the weather is not cooperating with winegrowers in France, Germany and Spain, and Türkiye’s wineries are facing crippling taxes …
Tamlyn Currin named Drink Writer of the Year
I’d like to shout out my colleague Tam Currin, pictured above centre. She just won the Fortnum & Mason Drink Writer of the Year award for a series of articles she wrote exploring Armenian wine, culture and history. If you aren’t already familiar with her incredible book reviews, mouth-watering pairing pieces or poetic tasting notes, I highly recommend you go read something from Tam.
Bordeaux cuts prices
Last week I told you that Pauillac-based fifth-growth Château Batailley released 2023 at an 11.9% reduction on the price of the 2022 vintage. After posting last week’s video, I woke up to the news that Château Léoville Las Cases, a second growth located in St-Julien, had dropped prices for their 2023 by 40% and that Pauillac-based fifth growth Château Pontet-Canet dropped prices by 27%. Then as the week wore on, we saw first growth Château Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac drop prices 31.7%, their second wine Carruades de Lafite drop 19.4%, Château L’Évangile in Pomerol drop by 30.6%, Château Talbot in St-Julien drop by 20.1%, and yesterday first growth Château Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac dropped prices by more than a third over 2022. All in all, these are the best release prices buyers have seen since 2019. Our bordeaux specialist James Lawther MW just came out with his first scores today to assist with your buying. Meanwhile Nick Martin of the wine-collection management platform Wine Owners has been keeping our forum updated with price v score comparisons to show our members which wines are the best-value buys.
If you’re thinking that price cuts this deep must mean something isn’t up to snuff, that’s not how en primeur works! En primeur is a game of supply and demand. If quality is poor but demand is there, prices still go up. If quality is good and demand isn’t there, prices still go down. It’s a market rebalancing act. What’s happened in the last few years is that prices for premium bordeaux have gone up so much that the market stopped buying. Then prices on the secondary market began to decrease to below the initial release price … In response, producers have slashed their prices to rebalance in the hope of reinvigorating the market.
Hail devastates Chablis
On Wednesday 1 May, violent hailstorms hit Chablis. While they lasted only a few minutes, they have severely damaged 50% of vineyards in the appellation, and the publication Vitisphère reported that some affected vineyards saw 80–100% loss. This is the worst hail Chablis has seen since 2016.
Then on Sunday 5 May, aggressive rain and hail damaged 500 ha/1,236 acres in the Dordogne. It is still early but many producers are reporting 100% loss.
Frosts burn vines in Europe
When I reported on the frosts that hit Germany last week, reports were still rolling out in many areas. Paula Sidore, our Germany specialist, wrote to say that the Mosel and Franken suffered badly in addition to Baden and Nahe, and that Austria’s Wachau was also affected.
Champagne has also been hit. While damage is hard to assess and varies based on location and variety, around 8,000 ha/19,768 acres in the Côtes des Bars were damaged as well as some vineyards in the Montagne de Reims. According to Vitisphère, Basile Pauthier of the CIVC reported that the amount of damage varies from 5 to 100% – though they are still evaluating.
In Spain, 26,720 ha/66,027 acres in Castilla y León, Rioja and Castilla-La Mancha were affected, with the worst damage being in Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Rioja, reports Spanish news agency EFE: Agro.
Freixenet's Cava concerns
Freixenet are the largest Cava producers in Spain. Last year they recorded record sales. But this year they applied to the government for permission to furlough 615 employees, or almost 80% of their workforce, on a short-term basis until they can re-employ them next year. The reason is that Catalonia is facing its third year of severe drought and the company expects that production will be minuscule. The Catalonian government denied their request. However, the company reached an agreement with unions representing the workers on 4 May that they would reduce those employees’ work hours by 20–50% until the end of 2024.
Türkiye's small wineries in danger
This piece of news came to my inbox by way of Umay Çeviker, Old Vine Conference regional ambassador for Türkiye, who has contributed to our site many times. He wrote because Türkiye’s Ministry of Agriculture, which regulates alcohol production and importation, released a draft of a law last December that would require wineries to put up 5 million to 30 million Turkish lira ($155,000–$925,000) financial collateral to pay possible future taxes or fines. This money would then be seized if any fees were unpaid. The law was originally supposed to go into effect in January but instead went into effect on 30 April with significant reductions in collateral. Small wineries, producing less than 20,000 litres of wine, or just over 2,000 12-bottle-cases, are now required to set aside half a million Turkish lira or around $15,500. Large producers must set aside 15 million Turkish lira, around $465,000.
A few things to note: alcohol production in Türkiye is already heavily regulated. Producers are not allowed to market, sell online or sell in stores near public buildings or schools. They are also subject to a ‘special consumption tax’, which means that they are already obligated to pay taxes before a sale can take place.
For small producers, having $15,500 dollars tied up and inaccessible is quite a large ask and Çeviker is afraid that it may cause small Turkish wineries to close. Producers are currently pushing for an annulment.
This is a transcript of our weekly five-minute news broadcast, which you can watch below. You can also listen to it on The JancisRobinson.com Podcast. If you have breaking news in your area, please email news@jancisrobinson.com. And if you enjoy this content and would like to see more like it, please subscribe to our site and our weekly newsletter.