Editorial
What are the Primeurs for?
A historical reminder is in order. While the origin of the system certainly goes back to the 18th century, with a concept that consisted in buying the grapes on the vine before the harvest, en primeur wine sales in Bordeaux were instituted by the Union des Grands Crus Bordelais in 1970. This institutional takeover certainly followed a few individual initiatives of organising tastings of the vintage during ageing directly at the property. The system imposed itself on the world in the 1980s. The Primeurs are, it must be said, a revolutionary idea and a real goose that laid golden eggs, which allowed the châteaux to free up cash by pre-selling the latest harvested vintage without waiting for the bottles to reach the market.
But people no longer jostle, and the cohort of buyers, distributors, brokers and négociants is now thinner, even if the Primeurs remain this “major” promotional moment for part of the industry. Cannes rather than Sundance, the event also attracts journalists, who gaze together like (self-proclaimed) haruspices at the entrails of the young ones and determine quality, drinkability and, in effect, the intrinsic value of a vintage, with their palate sometimes, with a wet finger often. Yet it is these appraisals that will determine at what prices the châteaux will offer the cuvées tasted. Let us hope 2024 does not bear the brunt of an approximate exegesis of the vintage, especially as there will be many surprises.
To believe Stéphane Derenoncourt and Jérôme Gagnez (read the joint interview in “Industry Voices”), the party is no longer what it was in the 1990s – in the full Parker boom – when buyers and distributors came in droves to taste rare wines offered at reasonable prices, up to 30% off. Whose fault is it? The massification of the offer, the absence of rarity, prices that are too high, the journalists? A bit of all that, in reality.
So why go along with the exercise, you will ask me? Well, because it nevertheless makes sense. All the estates offer the best of themselves, so they start on an equal footing. After tasting several hundred samples, the outlines of the vintage are generally drawn quite precisely, as is the possible advantage of one sector over another. Féret will again this year, for the second time, set about crisscrossing the territory to taste a vintage which everything suggests will give us a savoury and sprightly Bordeaux to see (drink)! Gwendeline Lucas, director of Vignobles Fayat, moreover looks back for us on the new wine profiles and the work she and her teams have undertaken to shape hedonistic wines in our “Spotlight”. This month, finally, Inno’vin suggests we take an interest in data put at the service of Bordeaux vineyards, and our partner Échos de Bordeaux by Agence Fleurie reminds us that on 21 March next the Bordeaux oenologists’ morning will take place, an unmissable appointment for the wine industry, which will invite us on a scientific dive into the heart of carbon. What a programme!
Faithfully yours,
Henry Clemens, publication director
