Fine Wine Archives - The Drinks Business https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/tag/fine-wine/ The Drinks Business is the leading drinks magazine for the off and on trade Fri, 21 Mar 2025 12:23:59 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/content/uploads/2023/02/cropped-db-favicon-32x32.png Fine Wine Archives - The Drinks Business https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/tag/fine-wine/ 32 32 Is this the year of the high-end harvest party? https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/is-this-the-year-of-the-high-end-harvest-party/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/is-this-the-year-of-the-high-end-harvest-party/#respond Fri, 21 Mar 2025 10:31:07 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674207 End of harvest celebrations, once intimate affairs reserved for pickers and producers, are turning into multi-million dollar ticketed events. Is this the dawn of the VIP harvest party? Sarah Neish investigates.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/is-this-the-year-of-the-high-end-harvest-party/feed/ 0 End of harvest celebrations, once intimate affairs reserved for pickers and producers, are turning into multi-million dollar ticketed events. Is this the dawn of the VIP harvest party? Sarah Neish investigates. Magnums, caviar, valet parking...end-of-harvest celebrations have moved on from a glass of mead and a quick dance around the maypole. In May, Chile's Viña VIK will host a lavish harvest festival do, with tickets priced at US$500 per person, and only 200 spots available. And it's not the only one. Luxury harvest parties are becoming the latest extension of fine wine brands offering exclusive tailored experiences, such as those only available through Banfi's Brunello Ambassador Club, for example, or at Symington Family Estates' forthcoming €6million Port townhouse. For VIK, based in the Cachapoal Valley, its harvest party will involve a "four-act" performance involving wine, gastronomy, art and music. Following a guided tour of the vineyards, paying guests will be treated to an outdoor vertical tasting of VIK’s four signature wines, including "magnum-format surprises" and the producer's 2018 vintage, due to launch later this month on La Place de Bordeaux. Lashings of caviar will also be served alongside VIK's La Piu Belle Champagne Millésime 2009, and live jazz and a viticulture-inspired art exhibition are also on the cards, with the celebration wrapping up with a DJ set and open bar. Not one to miss a trick, VIK has revealed that the first 50 people to buy tickets to the event on 3 May will also access a "special pre-sale" with exclusive benefits. Can we expect to see more high-end harvest parties? We asked some of our favourite premium producers around the world about their 2025 harvest plans,

Party like a rockstar

In California, Hourglass Winery's annual celebration The Mabron, named after its flagship cuvée, has "taken on a reputation for being one of the best parties in Napa", according to Sotheby's. The auction house included four VIP tickets to The Mabron last year as part of an exclusive 'Party Like a Rockstar experience', as well as two six-bottle vintage magnum vertical collections of Hourglass Estate Cabernet (2014-2019). This year, tickets to The Mabron are on sale for US$300 a pop, and the fixture has evolved into "a mini festival", owner Jeff Smith tells db. For 2025 guests can expect "exotic food trucks, a massive oyster spread, and a beautiful sampling of Hourglass wines against an array of live musical acts, all staged in the vineyard at the Hourglass Blueline Estate." Although the party takes place in the middle of harvest - 13 September - rather than at the end, "we think of it as our harvest celebration," says Smith. And with bottles of The Mabon wines on retail shelves for around US$85, the ticket price for the event isn't quite as sky-high as it might first appear.

Are tickets worth the cost?

VIK firmly believes so. "The $500 ticket reflects a once-in-a-lifetime event, with an element of exclusivity that we don't usually show to guests," says marketing manager Andrea García. "The event is not just a wine tasting—it's a premium, curated eight-hour-long experience at one of the world’s best wineries, with lots of surprises. Guests should expect the unexpected." There will be plenty to celebrate as already VIK is expecting 2025 wines with "remarkable promise" and "vibrancy and electricity on the palate". The Chilean producer kicked off its 2025 harvest picking Syrah in the first week of March, and expects to finish with Carmenere in the last weeks of April. "We started 14 days earlier compared to last year, under similar climatic conditions to 2023, which was a very good harvest," says García. "We want to celebrate with our guests and thank Mother Earth for it." She adds that the harvest party is also a way to celebrate "all the recognitions and awards we have received during the past year, including Cristián Vallejo being named as one of the drinks business' top 100 winemakers in the Master Winemakers publication." The party in May, which VIK intends to be an annual flagship event, is a chance to show that the producer is "not just a winery but a luxury destination." "The wine world is not just about picking the correct grapes, it's full of experiences," adds García. "There is tremendous work behind our proposal and we hope visitors will experience gastronomy and pairings at a whole new level."

High net worth

While the likes of VIK and Hourglass offer larger events that welcome paying members of the public into the festivities, another approach is to offer personalised harvest experiences for high net worth individuals or couples. "The harvest period is intense with all of our efforts focused on completing harvest, so visits during this time are very limited," says Romain Ott, head winemaker of the organic-certified Château Léoube in Provence. "At the same time we understand that harvest is a time of much excitement when wine-lovers are keen to come and see first-hand what’s happening on the estate. "We do very occasionally, if the conditions are right, offer a limited number of loyal customers the chance to experience picking so they can discover the harvest process and all of the hard work that goes on in the vineyard and winery. But we keep this very limited and exclusive so that the focus remains absolutely on harvest and wine production – our first and most important job." Similarly, Chateau Tanunda, one of the oldest estates in the Barossa Valley, invites guests to "witness our winemaking team in action during harvest" through glass viewing windows. Managing director Michelle Geber describes it as "like dining at a restaurant with an open kitchen, where seeing the craftsmanship first-hand enhances the experience." Tanunda hasn't yet thrown a luxury ticketed bash to celebrate the end of harvest, but Geber isn't ruling it out for future years. "I think it is a terrific idea," she says. "From our perspective, it's so important to invite our customers to be part of the wine journey and experience. The more they can immerse themselves in what we do, the richer their connection to our wines."

More traditional celebrations

Of course there are plenty of traditionally-minded producers who prefer to stick to more intimate harvest dos for workers and their families. "We always organise a big celebration with all our employees and their partners at the end of the harvest, inviting around 150 people to an informal open-air dinner to thank our teams for such a commitment during the harvest period," says Olivier Fayard, CEO of Pernod Ricard's premium rosé brand Sainte Marguerite, which celebrates its 50th harvest this year. He explains he prefers to keep the occasion in-house to provide a forum for exchanging thoughts and ideas. "Harvest is a very important milestone on the annual calendar, marking the end of the vine cycle and the beginning of the wine process," Fayard says. "It’s always a very exciting time as it's when we start to discover the aromatic palette of the year and prepare the blending sessions." For Sainte Marguerite's top-level ‘Marguerite’ rosé (£55), for example, each grape variety (Grenache, Cinsault and Vermentino) are fermented separately before blending. Following Pernod Ricard's majority share acquisition of the rosé brand in 2021, the decision was made to incorporate Sainte Marguerite into the group’s Champagne portfolio alongside brands including Perrier-Jouët and Mumm. Given the traditional company it keeps, it's perhaps unsurprising that Sainte Marguerite would want to follow in the footsteps of generations past who kept harvest celebrations private, prioritising those who put their blood, sweat and tears into the season.

The Cochelet

Fellow bubble maker Champagne Palmer is very much of this ethos. "In the Marne region [known for its production of Pinot Meunier-based Champagnes] we call the end of harvest the Cochelet, and it has always been primarily celebrated at home," says communications and marketing manager Francois Demouy. "We prefer to keep the Cochelet to an intimate circle as this convivial gathering marks the conclusion of a physically demanding, often exhausting harvest season. Keeping things small allows us to experience a genuine moment of sharing between winemakers and the harvest team. It's a time to strengthen bonds and celebrate a key milestone in the life of a Champagne house. By gathering in a warm and familiar setting, we honour the hard work of the harvest while preserving the authenticity and spirit of this cherished tradition." Champagne Palmer does not envision ever turning the Cochelet into a ticketed event, shares Demouy. "Above all, it is a tradition we wish to preserve and pass on. Rooted in the history of Champagne, this celebration remains a precious moment of togetherness, where authenticity and shared values take precedence over publicity or commercialisation," he says. However, in a db exclusive, he adds: "We would consider doing something on a local scale. Why not propose that the city of Reims organise a giant Cochelet? It would be a great way to share this tradition with a wider audience and showcase our customs. If several key players were to get involved, we could create a fantastic celebration that honours our heritage while bringing people together in the spirit of Champagne."

A community affair

Further south, near St Tropez, Léoube too is involving the local community in its harvest celebrations. In addition to offering exclusive picking experiences for top customers, the château throws two important gatherings, one for its workers and one for the local town. "The first is a big lunch with the whole team where we take time to relax, celebrate and enjoy one another’s company after a period of such intense work," explains Romain Ott. "The second celebration is a Harvest Festival which is open to the public. People can visit the estate, and spend the whole day near the beach, discovering artisan food, local produce and enjoying live music and family activities." Ott hints that a more curated experience is on the cards for 2025, saying that Léoube's Harvest Festival "is being reimagined to offer a slightly different experience for our customers"  The details are still being finalised but "it will be a memorable day spent enjoying the best of Provence near the beach next to Café Léoube," he says.

Revenue maker

Ticketed events that involve consumers in the harvest are a savvy way for producers to bring cash into the business and continue building their profile. Harvest parties also offer a way for premium wineries to stand out from their competitors, and to thank those in the wider wine ecosystem (growers, buyers, PRs, press etc.) for their role in the annual success of the company. As Château Léoube's Ott puts it: "The end of harvest brings a great sense of achievement and relief as we reach the end of a long journey. Thanking everyone who has been part of this journey, working hard throughout harvest and during the previous year is really important." The drinks business can see this trend evolving to include corporate hospitality experiences, as well as influencers and celebrities grappling to be a part of what until fairly recently has been a closed-off process shrouded in rituals, traditions and ancestral learnings. As wineries are staring down increasingly challenging times (tariffs, declining consumption, climate change and more), anything that brings revenue in should be afforded due consideration. Plus, those who party together....      ]]> Wine royalty snaps up California vineyard for rebrand https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/wine-royalty-snaps-up-california-vineyard-for-rebrand/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/wine-royalty-snaps-up-california-vineyard-for-rebrand/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2025 11:20:42 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674947 Arista Winery's Westside Road estate in the Russian River Valley has been acquired for a reported US$25.35 million as part of the reimagining of a wine mogul's existing label.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/wine-royalty-snaps-up-california-vineyard-for-rebrand/feed/ 0 Arista Winery's Westside Road estate in the Russian River Valley has been acquired for a reported US$25.35 million as part of the reimagining of a wine mogul's existing label. Arista's Westside Road estate vineyard, planted to "grand-cru level" Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, is located in sought-after Russian River Valley terroir. Founded in 2002 by Al and Janis McWilliams, Arista Winery has been managed by the McWilliams' sons Mark and Ben since 2012, but it's about to get a new custodian. Revealing they decided to offload the vineyard to allow Al and Janis to retire, as well as to avoid accruing debt, the McWilliams told Wine Spectator: "We saw that paying current market rate for the estate would require Arista to take on more debt than we wanted to and make growth that much more difficult." As Arista Winery makes its wines using grapes from growers spread across Russian River Valley, the McWilliams will continue to make wine under the Arista name, just without using fruit from that particular vineyard, which represents around 10% of the business.

New guard

The 8 acre (3.2ha) vineyard, as well as a winery and tasting room, has been acquired by Chris Underwood, CEO of wholesaler Young's Holdings, one of America’s oldest family-owned businesses (founded in 1888) and the parent company of luxury wine importer Wilson Daniels. Underwood also owns wine brand Jonive, which uses organically farmed grapes in the Sebastopol Hills, the coolest area of the Russian River Valley. Explaining in 2023 why he decided to start his own label, Underwood said he had "immensely enjoyed" working in the wholesale side of the wine business, but had "always had this untapped passion and drive to produce fine wine in my home state of California."
Two years on from the birth of Jonive, Underwood now intends to expand on its 1,500 cases of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay per year, but says consumers struggle to pronounce his brand's name. Because of this, he plans to rebrand Jonive as Harper's Rest from 1 June 2025. The Harper's Rest name is a nod to Ruben Harper, a pioneer farmer that settled in the Russian River Valley in the mid-1800s and who is buried on the Arista estate's property. The McWilliams previously made a Pinot Noir called Harper's Rest, the production of which has now halted.

What now?

Underwood plans to use grapes from the Arista vineyard from his 2025 vintage, though the wines' name will change over to Harper's Rest from the 2023s. He is also working with an architect to give Arista's tasting room an overhaul, with plans to make more of the beautiful views over a knoll and Japanese garden planted there. "Definitely the big elephant in the room was the declining tasting room visitation,” Mark McWilliams told the San Francisco Chronicle. The tasting room is currently closed to visitors, which Underwood will want to change quickspeed in order to optimise its cellar door. At Jonive, welcoming guests to the winery is at the heart of operations with the team "thrilled to receive curious guests for a tasting and discussion of our estate wines, for a walk through our organic vineyard, and to have food paired expertly with each wine by our winemaker/chef," the website reads. Pricing wise, Jonive and Arista wines both retail for around US$70 per bottle so there's likely to be synergy between their existing customer bases. And with the property's 20,000 case storage capacity, holding back older vintages will certainly be possible.

High praise

Russian River Valley is fast becoming one of the most exciting global spots for Pinot Noir. Two producers from the region - Patz & Hall and Marimar Estate Vineyards - won Master medals (the highest accolade) in last year's Global Pinot Noir Masters. And in 2020 a body of research found that Pinot Noirs from five Russian River Valley sub-zones were identifiable based on the clusters of chemical elements in each wine, an important discovery as it means the authenticity of wines labelled from these regions can now be proven beyond doubt. These ‘fingerprints’ held true regardless of the vineyard site within the smaller region, the clone planted or which winery produced it.    
]]> 19 March 2025: the Yquem Day that nearly wasn’t https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/19-march-2025-the-yquem-day-that-nearly-wasnt/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/19-march-2025-the-yquem-day-that-nearly-wasnt/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:21:04 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674711 Recently returned from his now annual pilgrimage to Château d’Yquem, db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay reflects on Yquem’s "extraordinary and exceptional" 2022 – the vintage that nearly wasn’t.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/19-march-2025-the-yquem-day-that-nearly-wasnt/feed/ 0 Recently returned from his now annual pilgrimage to Château d’Yquem, db's Bordeaux correspondent, Colin Hay reflects on Yquem’s "extraordinary and exceptional" 2022 – the vintage that nearly wasn’t. All good fine wine aficionados (if, quite frankly, not many others) know the answer to the following question. Indeed, it might almost provide a kind of test of fine wine geekery.

What day falls always on the third Wednesday of March?

‘Yquem Day’, ‘the vinous start of Spring’ and ‘the release of the new vintage of Yquem’ might all seem like acceptable answers. Well, yes and no. For there is a supplementary question that we can also pose.

What do the following have in common: 1952, 1972, 1992 and 2012?

This, too, is not a bad test – though that is not what I’m interested in here. The answer that I am looking for is the following: these are vintages ending in ‘2’ where no Yquem was made. Yquem, as this suggests, has something of a thing with vintages ending in ‘2’. For if there is no Yquem in any given vintage there is, logically, no Yquem day either. You might now begin to see where this is headed. For, odd though it might at first seem, above all given its majesty, nobility and splendour (to which we will return below), 2022 was the thickness of a grape skin away from joining the list of Yquem’s non-vintages. As Lorenzo Pasquini, Yquem’s estate manager recounted to me, this was a very close call. On 13 October, on the eve of what would have been only his second vintage at Yquem, he rang Pierre Lurton to break to him the news that despite the recent rainfall and the prospect – finally – of botrytis in the vineyard it would take a miraculous change in the weather conditions for it to produce a vintage worth harvesting. That no longer seemed possible. In short, the sequence was about to be extended: 1952, 1972, 1992, 2012 … and 2022. Two days later Pierre Lurton’s phone rang again. It was Lorenzo, again. The vintage was saved. A meteorological transformation had occurred, with a strong southwestern wind installed just when all seemed lost. The effect was instantaneous and dramatic, as it needed to be, with the air drying and temperatures rising rapidly (climbing to 34 degrees on the 18 October) and, in the process, establishing the conditions for the perfect propagation of botrytis throughout the vineyard with an almost unprecedented concentration of the grapes (with potential alcohol levels rising between 2 and 3 degrees daily). Indeed, so complete was the change in conditions that the problem now was the task of harvesting the entire vineyard before the grapes became desiccated and the sugar levels too elevated. On the 16 October, then, three days after all seemed lost, the fastest and, as Lorenzo again recounts, the most frenzied harvest in Yquem’s history began. It was completed in three whistlestop passes through the vineyard and concluded on the 26 October . The result is a wine of exceptional and rare quality, even for Yquem, and of quantity too. 2022, as I reported in my en primeur coverage at the time, is a vintage forged out of climatic excess. It was a veritable vigneron’s nightmare to live through  – with intense heat, incessant drought, wildfires in the forests of the Graves (less than 10km away from Yquem), the Landes (80km to the west) and the Médoc (on the other side of Bordeaux to the North), the risk of the evacuation of the vineyard and chai and some of the most violent hail storms in living memory with hail stones the size of hens’ eggs. And that’s before we get to the anxious anticipation of the (very) let onset botrytis and the question, when it did arrive, of whether conditions favourable to its propagation and the concentration of the fruit would establish themselves in time. It is interesting to re-visit my conclusion at the time, for Sauternes and Barsac more generally. I wrote then, “this is a rare and wonderful vintage that will reward the patience of those who were prepared to take the risk of waiting to pick until the optimal concentration of the grapes had been achieved after the late onset of botrytis and the return of the warm and dry conditions required to impart its signature on the grapes”. Whilst none of the details are wrong, it doesn’t quite seem to capture the inherent stress, the tension and the drama of the vintage. The following tasting note is my small tribute to the labours of those who worked in the vineyard and in the chai to make it possible and who lived that stress, that tension and that drama daily – and who triumphed. Yquem 2022 (Sauternes; 80% Sémillon; 20% Sauvignon Blanc; the final yield is around the historic average of 10 hl/ha; 160 g/l of residual sugar, the second highest ever recorded after the legendary 1945 vintage; pH 3.90, on a par with the 2019; 13.5% alcohol; 100% new oak though you have nothing directly to indicate that). The highest proportion of Sémillon since 2018. A wine of incredible aromatic purity, that reminds me most of the 2009. Apricot. Toasted brioche. Saffron and honey. Angelica. Frangipane. It’s nutty too. Butterscotch. Beurre noisette. Roasted pineapple, that lovely slight hint of crème brulée burnt sugar bitterness and a hint of the orange Seville marmalade notes to come. Almost a little hint of candied rose petals. Rose Turkish delight. A trace of grapefruit zest which is incredible in a wine so intensely sweet and ‘solaire’. There’s even a little eucalyptus and medicinal herbal elements, but very subtly. But it’s also and crucially so very fresh despite the incredible density. What I love is the way the freshness seems to grip and takes in charge the wine from the mid-palate to the very long and distant finish. Very saline on the finish – more and more so, with almost a hint of liquorice! The freshness sensation is sensational and somehow integral to the power and puissance of the wine, unlike any other wine of the appellation. It’s as if the salinity is more and more concentrated as the scope of the spherical core slowly reduces in amplitude towards the finish. I love too the return to the notes of roasted pineapple, lime zest and grapefruit accentuating the sense of salivating and sapid freshness. 100.]]> What will the impact of Trump tariffs be on fine wine? https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/what-will-the-impact-of-trump-tariffs-on-fine-wine/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/what-will-the-impact-of-trump-tariffs-on-fine-wine/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 13:13:36 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674451 American fine wines held in bond in the UK are likely to become “truly valuable” if Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose 200% tariffs on EU wines, according to one fine wine expert - although the effect on Bordeaux, Champagne and Italian wines is likely to be far less helpful.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/what-will-the-impact-of-trump-tariffs-on-fine-wine/feed/ 0 American fine wines held in bond in the UK are likely to become “truly valuable” if Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose 200% tariffs on EU wines, according to one fine wine expert - although the effect on Bordeaux, Champagne and Italian wines may be more brutal. Speaking to the drinks business following last week’s announcement, James Shakeshaft CEO of Vin-X said that US wines that are already held in bond in the UK  - notable icon wines such as Opus One, Screaming Eagle, and Scarecrow - are likely to see a large uplift on the secondary market as they will be ahead of any potential tariff costs for EU and UK suppliers. There are, he added a lot of back vintages of these wines held in the UK in bond, and these could prove to be a “tremendous” investment over the next few years, with EU and UK suppliers looking f0r a source of Opus One, Screaming Eagle, the Scarecrow from within the EU and UK, rather than incurring tariffs by importing it from America. He also pointed out that there was no mention of Australian wine tariffs, which could have potential implications for the likes of Penfold Grange, but it was important to take advise. "These [types of actions] create fluctuations, which creates opportunity - it is why investors come to companies like our, as it is our job to sort out those opportunities to maintain growth in an overall portfolio," he said. "In an overall portfolio, American wines already in the UK and anything left out of tariff negotiations will have an uplift and I have a strong feeling that Australian wine may have a bit of a comeback. They dropped off with the Asian tariffs but the Chinese tariffs that have now been lifted." This was echoed by a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, who noted that the US accounts of 40% of Penfolds' owner Treasury Wine Estates' earnings - and the share price lifted almost 5% in the immediate aftermath of the US President's announcement. However, the knock-on effect is likely to be less favourable for French and Italian wines, he said, citing the impact of President's previous round of tariffs during his first term, when Bordeaux was one of the major markets affected. Following the imposition of 25% tariffs on French wine and spirits in 2019, French exports to the US dropped by 14% in 2020. Meanwhile Italian wines and Champagne, which were not subject to any tariffs, saw a major boost across the market. For example Massetto 2010 traded at 73% higher in 2022 than it did in 2020, Shakeshaft said, while Champagne saw an overall uplift of 14%, although many in-demand brands and vintages saw considerably higher uplifts. Salon Mesnil 2002 for example traded 185.7% higher in 2022 than in 2020, according to Liv-ex data. Currently, it is unknown when - or even if - the  threatened 200% tariffs may kick in and if there will be any exceptions to it to apply to all EU wines, Champagnes and sprits. “We ran the numbers and if they did implement 200% tariffs, French wine could lose 70% to 90% of sales in the US," Shakeshaft said. "Champagne would also have a major decline, and if Italy if included... again, [there would be a] similar drop, while Americans would see massive price hikes for consumers." However, Shakeshaft argued that it is possible that the planning retaliatory tariffs on wine may eventually come in below the currently mooted level of 200%. He pointed to out for example, that the 47th President has already climbed down on his initial imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which originally covered all imports from the two countries at 25%, having introduced several key exemptions. “We're predicting something similar happening with wines," Shakeshaft said. "It feels high if you compare it to other products negotiations on tariffs.... I don’t doubt he’ll put tariffs on, but I don’t think we’ll see the 200%." "I think he will come back down to make it a more palatable tariff increase." Shakeshaft predicts it may eventually be similar to those seen in October 2019 - even if this time around, Italy and Champagne won’t be spared, as they were then. Back in October 2019, still wine (not over 14% ABV) made in France, Germany, Spain and the UK transported in containers of 2 litres or less and exported to the US were subject to 25% import tariffs, along with Scotch whisky; single malt whiskey from Northern Ireland; and liqueurs made in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the UK.  ]]> Clear thinking: Blandy’s fresh approach to Madeira https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/clear-thinking-blandys-fresh-approach-to-madeira/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/clear-thinking-blandys-fresh-approach-to-madeira/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 11:42:11 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673993 With its clear glass bottles and colour-coded labels, Blandy’s new 10-year-old range represents a radical rethink of Madeira – while the liquid itself is shaped by the company’s ground-breaking research into maturation conditions. Richard Woodard finds out more.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/clear-thinking-blandys-fresh-approach-to-madeira/feed/ 0 With its clear glass bottles and colour-coded labels, Blandy’s new 10-year-old range represents a radical rethink of Madeira – while the liquid itself is shaped by the company’s ground-breaking research into maturation conditions. Richard Woodard finds out more. Words like “unconventional”, “radical” and “disruptive” may not instantly spring to mind when thinking about Madeira, but Blandy’s launch of a new, four-strong range of varietal 10-year-old wines may just change all that – both in terms of the packaging and the liquid itself. The new line-up – accompanied by the Unconventional Madeira tagline – encompasses the island’s four traditional white varieties and, through them, four distinct levels of ascending sweetness: Sercial (dry), Verdelho (medium dry), Bual (medium rich) and Malmsey (rich). Colour-coded labels reflect the different styles, with warmer hues for the richer wines, and the use of clear glass showcases the contrasting depths of colour of the different wines. Blandy’s trade partners played an important role in developing the packaging, as CEO and seventh-generation family member Chris Blandy acknowledges. “We’re pretty confident about making wine, since we’ve been doing it for over 200 years,” he says. “But we’ve always had a really tight relationship with our key importers, and they really came in with the packaging – they were very interested and keen to be part of the discussions early on. We can make the best wine in the world, but with something as unknown as Madeira, you’ve got to get the packaging right.” There’s also a shift back from a 50cl to a 75cl bottle – which, alongside additional hikes in costs and UK excise duty, means an inevitable price increase. Blandy highlights the potential positives for the on-trade in terms of space occupation, but admits that discussions with retailers may be “tough”. He adds: “I’m actually getting to the stage where I feel quite confident that people who buy 10-year-old Madeira know what it is, and they know that it’s pretty much indestructible after it’s opened. So we’re talking about the positives.” Arguably the most notable packaging change is the use of a clear glass bottle. “It’s a bit like whisky in terms of the idea that the beauty is the colour,” says Blandy. “Right now, we’re hiding that, and we’re not letting consumers see the beauty of the colour and the differences between the styles. So let’s really promote that, so people can see what they’re buying.” “What they’re buying” is the result of years of research into the intricacies of ageing, and a shift in winemaking philosophy that goes back further still. “We’ve always tried to be a pioneer of any disruptive approach to winemaking,” says Blandy, highlighting the legacy of the Symington family, partners in the running of the Madeira Wine Company (owner of Blandy’s, Cossart Gordon and other wine brands) between 1989 and 2011, after which they retained a 10% shareholding. “The Symingtons’ approach to winemaking back in the early 1990s really revolutionised how we make wine, and Francisco Albuquerque [Blandy’s winemaker] was very much part of that revolutionary approach. They updated the whole vinification plan and the approach to vineyards.” In 2014, Blandy’s relocated its winery from Funchal to Caniçal on Madeira’s easternmost point, sparking a major research project. Starting in 2016/17, sensors were placed in each of Blandy’s 12 ageing rooms in Funchal and Caniçal, measuring temperature and humidity every few minutes; at the same time, the company monitored how the wines in each of the ageing rooms evolved. “We had a lot of fun with blind tasting,” says Blandy. “We were getting a sense of what people thought were the best wines ageing in different locations.” Average temperatures were cooler in Caniçal (21.6C) than in Funchal (23.2C); in the hottest rooms in Funchal, however, there was a 3C temperature variation, and a 17% difference in humidity. The research concluded that all four grape varieties benefitted from beginning their maturation in Funchal. Sercial and Verdelho preferred to spend 50% or more of their ageing in Caniçal, but Bual and Malmsey were better-suited to keep on maturing in Funchal, before moving to Caniçal for bottling. “We knew that different climatic conditions would have some impact, in terms of the temperature and humidity variations,” says Blandy. “But I think we were surprised that it was so varietal-specific.” The findings have broader connotations for a company that has some 5m litres of wine in stock, spanning from 2024 all the way back to 1920. For the moment, however, the main focus is on the 10-year-old age tier. “The 10-year-old strategically has always been the category over the last 15 years that we’ve identified as the right category to drive for our promotional campaigns, especially in terms of food pairings,” says Blandy. “It’s to do with the age of the wine, the price of the wine, the complexity and the quality. We think it is that perfect sweet spot to really focus all of our attention on.” The roll-out of the new range began on the island itself, before moving to mainland Portugal and then onto the UK via an exclusive with retailer The Whisky Exchange. The US, says Blandy, represents a “huge opportunity”, but one complicated by its three-tier distribution system – meaning that it will take some time to move through old stock. Mention of the US raises the prospect of tariffs, which President Trump has promised to levy on the EU, although the details remain uncertain. Blandy admits that there will be “serious discussions with our importers” if tariffs are introduced, adding that the company is also trying to develop other markets – for example, in Asia. “At the same time, I still think that Madeira is so niche that, if the whole wine trade is going to be exposed to tariffs, it’s just something that the consumer is going to have to get used to,” he says. “We’ve planned as well as we can, and it’s keeping us on our toes. But if it’s going to affect one, it’s going to affect everyone.” More positively, Blandy is keen to make the most of next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, pointing out: “The founding fathers drank a huge amount of Madeira. Washington, Jefferson and Adams – all of them were big Madeira fans.” So far, Blandy has had meetings with the anniversary organising committee and the Portuguese Embassy. “I don’t think there’s a better marketing opportunity for Madeira wine,” he says. “If we can be front-of-mind when it comes to that, even if tariffs do go up, we’ll have a lot of opportunity to talk about Madeira during the next year.” Blandy’s is distributed in the UK by Fells. The four new 10-year-old Madeiras are bottled at 19% ABV and have a UK RRP of £40 for a 75cl bottle.]]> Bonhams to auction inaugural vintage from the Kingdom of Bhutan https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-to-auction-inaugural-vintage-from-the-kingdom-of-bhutan/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-to-auction-inaugural-vintage-from-the-kingdom-of-bhutan/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 11:15:32 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674589 Auction house Bonhams is to offer the first-ever vintage from the Kingdom of Bhutan in its latest auction in collaboration with the Bhutan Wine Company, which is says is a "unique opportunity" to own wine from a brand-new wine region.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-to-auction-inaugural-vintage-from-the-kingdom-of-bhutan/feed/ 0 Auction house Bonhams is to offer the first-ever vintage from the Kingdom of Bhutan in its latest auction in collaboration with the Bhutan Wine Company, which is says is a "unique opportunity" to own wine from a brand-new wine region. The commemorative blend, which is named Ser Kem (meaning an offering of alcohol to the Gods) First Barrel, comprises a blend of grapes from four different vineyards, comprising just one barrel with a blend of six red and four white wines that were produced during the inaugural 2023 viticultural season. As the Bhutan Wine Company's co-founder Michael Juergens told the drinks business last year, the first vintage was designed to be a collector’s piece and a "memo to the future", rather than a true foray into production for commercial consumption, or "a precise promise of what’s to come". The online auction, which runs from 3 – 24 April includes 48 lots of wine from the Himalayan kingdom, some with unique experiences, which are being offered without reserve, with estimates ranging from $4,000 to $80,000. The top lot comprises a customised large format bottle called The Himalayan, a 7.57L bottle of wine, which pays homage to highest unclimbed mountain in the world, Gangkhar Puensum in Bhutan, which measures 7,570 meters, along with a curated trip to Bhutan. The Himalayan is the only one of its kind being released onto the global wine market – one further bottle was presented to the King of Bhutan. The Bhutan Wine Company was founded by Michael Juergens, a partner at Deloitte, who leads the Deloitte Winery Solutions and Services practices and his partner Ann Cross following a trip to the remote country in 2017, following which Juergens spent six months researching and writing a white paper detailing a 10-year-vision for how Bhutan would build a sustainable, world-class wine region in the Himalayas, from grape to glass. The couple subsequently joined forces with two Bhutanese man, Yab Dhondup Gyaltshen and former diplomat Karma Choeda to found the company, which now counts Jancis Robinson MW as a members of its advisory board, supported by the government of Bhutan. Speaking to the drinks business last year, Juergens noted that the country’s "incredible diversity of micro-climates, elevations and soils, the purity of the environment and the government’s support of the initiative made the venture completely irresistible to both of us". The tiny landlocked country, which comprises about 14,000 square miles and only 300 miles north to south, is perched on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas in south-central Asia and until the 1970s was a remote kingdom inaccessible to outsiders, having never been a stop on the Silk Road, or subject to a Roman invasion. Despite its small size, however, the climate changes considerably with elevations and soils, and there are three main climactic regions - The subtropical Duars Plains; the more temperate Lesser Himalayas and the alpine tundra of the Great Himalayas. The first vineyards were planted in 2019 covering a variety of climates and altitudes (up to to 9,150 feet in elevation), and including both experimental and commercial vineyards, with plantings of around 17 varieties, dominated by classical varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. In a release from Bonhams today, Juergens said that the Bhutan Wine Company was about to realize its dream of sharing Bhutan’s first wine with the world having spend “the better part of the last decade trying to capture the magical essence of Bhutan in a bottle of wine.” “There is no other single wine region on the planet with the same level of diversity of terroirs in such a small area,” Cross added. “As the first carbon-negative country, Bhutan benefits from harmony in its environment with pure water, no smog, pristine soil, high biodiversity, and a long history of growing diverse world-class agricultural crops.”  ]]> Champagne Gardet gets ready to celebrate in its 130th year https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/101-champagne-gardet-gets-ready-to-celebrate-in-its-130th-year/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/101-champagne-gardet-gets-ready-to-celebrate-in-its-130th-year/#respond Mon, 17 Mar 2025 11:44:33 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=674389 Christophe Prieux, owner of Champagne Gardet, guides db through the upcoming events and cuvées marking its 130th anniversary.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/101-champagne-gardet-gets-ready-to-celebrate-in-its-130th-year/feed/ 0 Christophe Prieux, owner of Champagne Gardet, guides db through the upcoming events and cuvées marking its 130th anniversary.

How do you think Gardet has grown and changed over its 130 years?

It’s fair to say that the company hasn’t experienced any growth in terms of volume. At the end of the 19th century we produced 1 million bottles, which is still our production today. But it has never been the house’s intention to increase its volume beyond our capacity, to the detriment of quality. On the contrary, Gardet has grown in reputation and quality, thanks to our oenologist and our desire to offer Champagnes that remain fresh while also possessing beautiful aromatic complexity.

What is the house doing to mark this year’s anniversary?

We will be celebrating this milestone with a series of meetings and events at Gardet, with our customers, business partners and wine growers. There won’t be just one anniversary date, but a whole year of festivities. This year will also mark the inauguration of our cellar expansion, which will be completed in the second half of 2025.

What do you hope for the next 130 years of Champagne Gardet?

On the one hand, that our Champagne house gains more and more notoriety, and on the other, that it remains above all a great family adventure, with the transmission to the new generation.

What was the thinking behind the anniversary cuvée?

We wanted it to become a rendezvous in the minds of people who appreciate Champagne Gardet. We had very good feedback on the cuvée created for the house’s 120th anniversary, and we decided, for the 130th anniversary, to use the same elegant black and gold colour scheme, to create a link and continuity with each new decade, and to mark not only this event in 2025, but all the others thereafter. Following the success of the 120th anniversary we celebrated in 2015, we thought the perfect way to mark the occasion today would naturally be to enjoy a 2015 vintage.

What makes the packaging of this cuvée so special?

The design is based on the codes and roots of our house: a delicate decoration and a tangle of golden lines, on a bottle painted a velvety black.

How would you summarise the cuvée?

Tasting this vintage takes us on an exalting sensory journey combining elegance and freshness. Millésime Extra-Brut 2015 is a wine where the Pinot Noir (70%) explodes with fruit and deliciousness, while the Chardonnay (30%) reveals a beautiful minerality and magnificent acidity. Aged in bottle on lees for more than eight years, it surprises with its freshness and minerality, thanks to its extra-brut dosage of 4g/l. Which bottles will you personally be drinking to celebrate this year? The special Champagne Gardet 130th anniversary cuvée, of course.]]> Château Latour releases its long-awaited 2016 vintage https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/chateau-latour-reveals-its-2025-releases/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/chateau-latour-reveals-its-2025-releases/#respond Mon, 17 Mar 2025 11:34:38 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=670159 Château Latour has released the critically acclaimed 2016 vintage grand vin onto the market place — a year later than originally expected — alongside its second and third labels. 

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/chateau-latour-reveals-its-2025-releases/feed/ 0 Château Latour has released the critically acclaimed 2016 vintage grand vin onto the market place — a year later than originally expected — alongside its second and third labels.  The Pauillac-based First Growth, which is owned by Artémis Domaines, was due to release of the 2016 last year, however it was held back in order to benefit from an extra year of ageing in the cellar, while the 2017 was released instead, being deemed "more open and accessible" at the time. The 2016, a blend of 92.9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7.1% Merlot, has been released at €470 ex-chateau, €540 ex-negociant, and £6,200 per case of 12 bottles, which is equivalent to €614.4 per bottle.  There are around 5000 cases of the vintage released. It is also a 22.7% discount to the current Market Price of the 2010, Liv-ex said, which remains the only other 100-point scoring Latour on the market. It is a slight decrease on the 2015 vintage, which was released at £6,300 per case two years ago, but up on the lesser-scoring 2017 vintage, which was released last year at £4,800 for case of 12x 75cl. Château Latour is one of the few great estates that does not offer its wines en primeur, having left the system back in 2012 in order to concentrate on releasing bottled wines that had already been aged in the cellar. According to Matthew O'Connell, head of investment at Bordeaux Index and CEO of the LiveTrade fine wine exchange, the release is coming at a time when the  market conditions are still challenging. "The sales environment in 2024 was tough across the board, and Latour was no exception," he said. "Year-on-year sales fell approximately 40%, and sales over the five-year average declined 45%, marking the lowest level in a decade." "In addition, Latour typically lags behind other First Growths due to its absence from the en primeur (EP) campaign, however, when adjusting for EP sales (excluding 2023 for Haut-Brion, Lafite, Margaux, and Mouton, and 2017 for Latour), it ranked third in 2024, he pointed out, "just ahead of Mouton but well behind Lafite, despite the headwinds in the East". In terms of vintage preferences and buyer trends, Latour vintage sales are skewed heavily in favour of prime/semi-mature vintages - in part due to its distinctive distribution model, which sees aged stock released from its cellars each March and September. As a result of this model, the top-performing vintages in 2024 on the market were the 2009, 2000, and 2005, "reflecting continued demand for well-established, high-scoring years", O'Connell said. In addition, while the broader market remains challenging, he noted that after 30 months of correction, "there are signs of renewed activity and even isolated price appreciation." As a result, O'Connell argues that the Latour 2016 is well-positioned to received a strong reception, given the critical acclaim it has garnered and the relative value it offers, despite the difficult market conditions. The 2016 has, he noted benefitted from rave reviews, "even from the more curmudgeonly critics" - gaining 100 points from Neal Martin and Antonio Galloni of Vinous, Jane Anson, and Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW of The Wine Independent, with the Wine Advocate's William Kelley awarding it 96+ points. Martin called it "magnificent" and "everything you could really wish for in a Latour". "It is one of those ones that genuinely wowed us, so fulsome endorsement won't be a chore," O'Connell agreed. It also helps that comparable vintages - particularly the 2009 and 2010 - are priced around 40% higher, he noted, making this release "compelling for buyers". Indeed, ahead of the release, Bordeaux Index warned its customers that global demand is likely to be "extremely high, even in the current market, and securing stocks might not be that easy" and recommended registering interest prior to the release date. The 2010, which also scored 100-points, was released before Latour withdrew from en primeur in 2012. It was priced at €710 per bottle ex-château or €850 per bottle ex-négociant, or£11,000 per case of 12 ex-London, but it has a current Market Price of around £8,020, according to Liv-ex (as of 5th March 2025), trading at around 22% beneath its release price in recent months. Speaking ahead of the release, O'Connell told db that if Latour reaches the end consumer at ~£3,200 per six-bottles, "we feel it would represent fair market value,"

In addition to the Grand vin, the estate has also released its second and third wines, Les Forts de Latour 2019 and Pauillac de Latour 2020.]]> Axel Heinz launches Merlot-only Lascombes https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/axel-heinz-launches-merlot-only-lascombes/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/axel-heinz-launches-merlot-only-lascombes/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:45:57 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673827 Winemaker Axel Heinz is producing a new Merlot-only 2022 La Cote at Château Lascombes that will be about twice as expensive to buy as the estate wine, writes Roger Morris.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/axel-heinz-launches-merlot-only-lascombes/feed/ 0 Winemaker Axel Heinz is producing a new Merlot-only 2022 La Cote at Château Lascombes that will be about twice as expensive to buy as the estate wine, writes Roger Morris. Should there be any surprise that the estate director who elevated Merlot-icon Masseto during his tenure at Ornellaia is now launching a Merlot varietal wine in his new position as head of Château Lascombes, the large second-growth in Margaux? Available later this spring, it is called La Côte Lascombes, and the 2022 vintage is going on the market, perhaps more surprisingly, at twice the price of the Château Lascombes grand vin (about US$200 versus $98) and will initially be available in more-limited quantities. The new Lascombes director, Axel Heinz, was lured away from Ornellaia in March 2023 to take over at Lascombes, less than a year after the venerable but perpetually under-performing property was purchased by the American billionaire Gaylon Lawrence in November 2022.

Shaking things up

“I didn’t come here to just make a Merlot,” Heinz recounted in a virtual interview as he prepared for the annual primeurs event, but admits that having 60-year-old Merlot vines planted on blue marl clay over limestone soil was an enticement. “The 2022 vintage was in barrels when I got here, and we quickly saw that some of the Merlot lots were spectacular,” he says. “But before we bottled it, we wanted to be sure we could replicate the same quality in 2023 and 2024.” Heinz admits that neither he nor Lawrence Wine Estates CEO Carlton McCoy were interested in taking the 120-hectare (297 acres) estate and just working harder at making it better, as recent attempts have done. “The idea was to add a new wine that would make a little more excitement, to add new life to an old, historic property,” he says. “We wanted shake things up a bit.” While some of the Merlot in La Côte would definitely have gone into the estate wines, as Heinz notes, he also wanted to reshape the estate wine into something stylistically different than it had been. “The new first wine comes from the core vineyards that were part of the estate in 1855” at the time of classification, he says, “which is mostly on gravel and is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon.” Lascombes will continue to produce its second wine, Chevalier de Lascombes, Heinz says. You can read the tasting notes of the wine's 2023 vintage from db Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay, here. Unlike his predecessor at Ornellaia, Thomas Duroux, who now makes a “different expression,” Alter Ego, just down the road at Château Palmer, which isn’t considered a second wine either, Heinz points out that the new Lascombes Merlot is a varietal wine and not a different stylistic blend, as is Alter Ego.

No stranger

Of course, Heinz is no stranger to the Medoc, having studied oenology at the University of Bordeaux and then working at Château La Tour Carnet and other Bordeaux wineries before being hired as winemaker at Ornellaia in 2005 and moving up to estate director in 2015. Lascombes, which dates its history as an estate back to the 1600s, has undergone several attempts in recent years to make wine on a par with its official status, but to little avail. Various consultants have been brought in, including Michel Rolland, and Heinz says he will continue to work with one of Rolland’s assistants. In addition to the changes in its portfolio, I asked Heinz if he intends to employ the same type of the high-level, artistic promotions that had drawn so much to Ornellaia as a brand. Yes, he said, but noted they would be different and that they weren’t yet detailed. “The paradox is that although Lascombes is well-known, very few people know any detail other than the name,” he says. Heinz wants to give it added identity and dropped the hint that Lascombes will probably be joining the Medoc trend of having a white wine its portfolio, but no preparations have yet begun. “But the one thing the owners emphasise,” he says, “is that they don’t buy any wine property just to make average wine.”]]> Master Winemaker 100: Julien Lefevre https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-julien-lefevre/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-julien-lefevre/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:40:09 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673871 The cellar master at Champagne Collery tells db about reading Hemingway, the dangers of trends and his desire to showcase Champagne's "forgotten grapes".

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-julien-lefevre/feed/ 0 The cellar master at Champagne Collery tells db about reading Hemingway, the dangers of trends and his desire to showcase Champagne's "forgotten grapes". A Champenois through and through, Julien Lefevre honed his winemaking craft through a combination of work for Champagne powerhouse Moët & Chandon and a stint as an oenologist for specialist sparkling wine consultancy Oenotechnic. Since joining Aÿ-based Champagne Collery, Lefevre has worked closely with the rest of the team here to define the style of a house, with more than a century of history, that has recently been reborn. “We set no barriers other than high quality,” Lefevre explains. “We wanted to have fun and experiment to produce wines that resemble us.”

What job did you imagine yourself doing when you were seven years old?

I wanted to be an architect.

Who first led you down the winemaking career path, and how?

I discovered winemaking with my father when I was a kid, and harvesting with him.

What’s the most recent lesson this job has taught you?

Patience and tenacity lead to the best results.

If you were a wine, what would your back label say?

It is a thoroughbred wine with a lot of character, showing balance, freshness and depth; an invitation to meditation and social gathering. To be paired with friends.

What’s the last book you read?

Le Vieil Homme Et La Mer (The Old Man And The Sea) by Ernest Hemingway.

What’s the last live music performance you saw?

Calogero, a French-Italian singer.

What frustrates you most about the world of wine?

Critics and scores which deeply influence “trendy styles” sometimes hold me back from exploring a wine’s profile creation or creating beautiful blends that are not “trendy” or written about as “desirable” or “qualitative”.

Which sustainability initiative are you most proud of, and why?

Renewable energy implementation at the winery.

If you could change one thing about your wine region, what would it be?

A circular economy to develop reuse of packaging, including bottles that consume a lot of energy to be produced.

Which winemaker do you most admire, and why?

I admire a lot Champagne Jacquesson. From their long history to their vineyard management, originality in the blending process and winemaking approach, and tremendous sales results, everything lines up perfectly. When tasting the Champagne, it is very clear that every step – ageing, the disgorgement approach – is carefully, doubly thought about.

Which missing skill do you most wish you possessed?

I’d like to be able to understand and speak a language other than French.

What’s your idea of a perfect holiday?

Complete disconnection from the external world to peacefully enjoy nature’s quietness.

What is the most pressing personal or professional ambition you’d like to fulfil?

I’d like to be able to create a cuvée exclusively from some or all of the “forgotten” grapes of Champagne.

What would your final meal be? And what would you drink with it?

Beef rib-eye with Saint-Joseph Le Clos 2011 from Chapoutier. Champagne Collery is exhibiting at ProWein Düsseldorf next week in Hall 10, Stand H10.]]> Zachys eyes up further growth following ‘pivotal’ milestone https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/zachys-eyes-up-further-growth-following-private-investment-under-new-ceo/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/zachys-eyes-up-further-growth-following-private-investment-under-new-ceo/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2025 11:20:34 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673705 Fine wine auctioneer Zachys has secured private investment which it says will supports its growth as it also confirms the appointment of acting CEO to the top job — the first non-family member to lead the company. 

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/zachys-eyes-up-further-growth-following-private-investment-under-new-ceo/feed/ 0 Fine wine auctioneer Zachys has secured private investment which it says will supports its growth as it also confirms the appointment of acting CEO to the top job — the first non-family member to lead the company.  The US-based company was founded by Zachy Zacharia in 1944 as a corner liquor store in Scarsdale, New York, and has remained independent and family-owned for over 80 years, during which time it has expanded, refocusing its retail strategy from liquor to fine wine and establishing a strong presence in wine auctions from the mid 1990s, expanding to Asia and UK before opening an online auction platform in 2012, and later to fine wine storage. Although it is not releasing details of the new investment, the company confirmed to db that the move had altered the company structure, with the Zacharia family now becoming minority owners. It called it the milestone "a pivotal moment" in the company's history that would "strategically position the brand to accelerate its growth". According to a spokesman the investment will allow Zachys to focus on enhancing its auction services and expanding its e-commerce presence for a "seamless digital experience" as well as "reinforcing its legacy of offering exclusive allocations and first access to the world’s finest wines". The company also announced that Eileen Rizzo, who was appointed acting chief executive officer in July, would become the company's CEO, taking over from long-serving CEO and third generation family member Jeff Zacharia. Zacharia will continue to serve as chairman of the Board and work in the business, with company's president, Andrew McMurray continuing in his role Zacharia said the the investment was "a testament to the enduring strength and potential of the Zachys brand" and recognised the equity "we've built over decades.” Rizzo is the the first non-family member to lead Zachys and her appointment "signals a new era for the brand", the company said, following a year of "transformative changes". "I am honoured to lead Zachys into this exciting new era," Rizzo said. "The confidence shown by our investors underscores the power of the Zachys name and the dedication of our incredible team. We have a unique opportunity to build on our legacy of exceptional service and unparalleled selection, while also embracing innovation and new avenues for growth across both our retail and auction platforms. I am confident that together, we will continue to set the standard for excellence in the fine wine and spirits world." In January, the company celebrated total sales of around US$100m million across its auction business and retail sales.]]> ‘This is not another Villa Maria’: how one of NZ’s biggest wine figures started again https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/this-is-not-another-villa-maria-how-one-of-nzs-biggest-wine-figures-started-again/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/this-is-not-another-villa-maria-how-one-of-nzs-biggest-wine-figures-started-again/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:10:27 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=671413 Two years ago, Villa Maria founder Sir George Fistonich launched new winery project Čuvar, now run by his eldest daughter. Sarah Neish finds out why this boutique operation is worlds apart from the global wine giant.

The post ‘This is not another Villa Maria’: how one of NZ’s biggest wine figures started again appeared first on The Drinks Business.

]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/this-is-not-another-villa-maria-how-one-of-nzs-biggest-wine-figures-started-again/feed/ 0 Two years ago, Villa Maria founder Sir George Fistonich launched new winery project Čuvar, now run by his eldest daughter. Sarah Neish finds out why this boutique operation is worlds apart from the global wine giant. Sir George Fistonich was just 21 years old when he founded eponymous New Zealand wine brand Villa Maria in 1961. Initially intending to become a professional carpenter, he ended up leasing five acres of land from his Croatian father on which to grow grapes, and the rest as they say, is history. Today, Villa Maria is a household name and the business worth upwards of $200 million. In 2021, as the brand closed in on its 60th birthday, rumours began to surface that Villa Maria was looking to sell-up, and that New Zealand's largest apple producer, Scales Corporation, was in the running to take over the business. The apple grower allegedly put in a bid to buy the company, but was pipped to the post by Indevin, who snapped up the brand later that same year.

New start

Having offloaded Villa Maria, the star player of the Fistonich Family Vineyards business, all eyes were on what Sir George would do next. Would he ride off into the sunset to enjoy his retirement back in his suburban Auckland home, or forge ahead with a new project? It turned out he'd been making moves in the background for some time, and in 2023 he launched the boutique Čuvar Winery "after years of planning". Last year, as part of a long-standing succession plan, he handed over the reins to his daughter Karen, a former chairperson on the board of Villa Maria, to take the operation forward.  With the lion's share of its vineyards located in Hawke's Bay, rather than in Villa Maria's heartland Marlborough, and a focus on premium Chardonnay rather than Sauvignon Blanc, Čuvar was set to be different from the offset. Producing fewer than 10,000 cases per year, compared to Villa Maria's 2.5 million, and with its eyes set firmly on the on-trade, fine wine merchants, and independent retailers, Čuvar was always going to be a detour from the Fistonich family's usual modus operandi. Although Sir George's craftsmanship and care "has guided us for decades", marketing manager Ali Sundstrum tells db, "Čuvar is intentionally different—a boutique-sized business with a single-minded focus on quality." Villa Maria, she says, was "more about the grocery sector and big markets, while Čuvar is committed to elevating Hawke's Bay's fine wine story."

Chardonnay pillar

For this reason, the brand has chosen to pour its interest into Chardonnay. Its first commercial release was a single-varietal wine made from this white grape from the 2020 vintage. "Chardonnay offers the greatest potential, combining strong consumer demand with Hawke’s Bay’s ability to produce world-class expressions," says Čuvar CEO Karen Fistonich, whose husband is Milan Brajkovich of New Zealand's Kumeu River Wines family. Bottle prices reflect this direction, with Čuvar's Chardonnays priced at around NZ$45 (£19.80), with its "lower tier" wines sitting at around NZ$25 (£11).  

Protagonists of change

Calling themselves "protagonists of positive change", the Čuvar team aims to turn New Zealand's fine wine offering on its head. But it has a bit of housekeeping to take care of first as consultant winemaker Michelle Richardson is leaving to pursue her own project following Čuvar's 2025 vintage. The rest of the winemaking team, however, remains firmly in place, including viticulturist Odette Preston, who formerly worked for Villa Maria, and Dave Mackintosh, who co-founded his own wine label Arfion in Australia's Yarra Valley in 2011, expressing a need "to be hands on, and free to take risks."
Speaking exclusively to db, Karen Fistonich describes Čuvar's style as "contemporary-classic Hawke’s Bay wines that speak of balance, structure, and subtlety." "Never heavy-handed or over-extracted, we follow the vineyard’s cues, working to build on its strengths, and respecting the character of the fruit, rather than imposing our will upon it," she adds. The wines available in market now are predominantly from the 2023 vintage, alongside some bottle-aged wines from 2020 and 2021, but Mackintosh is "super excited "about the Chardonnay fruit from this year. “2025 is looking amazing, the acids are holding well with beautiful citrus and white nectarine notes coming through, and great balance across our vineyards sites in Hawke's Bay,” he says. These vineyard sites span a total of 100ha ranging from the world-famous Gimblett Gravels to Čuvar's recently acquired Te Hau Matapiro in Crownthorpe. However, the business does have some Marlborough plantings in its back pocket, comprised of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, in the Awatere Valley. Last year Čuvar also added Stonecroft, a tiny Hawke's Bay winery, to its holdings.

Legacy and learnings

Despite Čuvar's determination to forge its own path, it would be lunacy for the new business to ignore the legacy and learnings of Villa Maria, so it's little surprise that echoes of its alma mata chime softly throughout the company. Some of Čuvar's vineyards, including Cornerstone in the Gimblett Gravels and the winery's home block in Bayview, were previously "admired fruit sources" for Villa Maria, which produces three Hawke's Bay reds, and a Chardonnay as part of its portfolio. But the fruit from these former Villa Maria vineyards is now "exclusively used by Čuvar", confirms Sundstrom.
The brand is also tapping into Villa Maria’s existing distribution network in some key markets. "We're excited to continue working with Kinoshita in Japan, a former Villa Maria distributor that took on Čuvar in 2024," says Karen. "However, in Singapore, we secured a new partnership with Little Farms, a premium retail chain, completely unrelated to Villa Maria. Rather than simply leveraging former relationships, we target distributors with a gap in their portfolio for premium Hawke’s Bay wines." The brand is actively seeking distribution in other international markets for 2025 and beyond. "Karen spent 28 years working alongside her father and Villa Maria, so brings deep industry knowledge," says Sundstrum. "One of the key learnings we carry forward is a vineyard-first approach, recognising that great wines start in the vineyard."

Rosy future

Čuvar also hopes to put premium Hawke’s Bay rosé on the map through its 100% Cabernet Franc expression. Priced at NZ$33.99 (£15) the 2023 Cornerstone Vineyard Rosé from the Guardians Collection has "a bouquet of pink peppercorns and creaming soda", according to viticulturist Preston, "and might just be the best rosé I've tried." "While our primary mission is to champion Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay, we love rosé and see it as a perfect wine for the New Zealand lifestyle," says Karen Fistonich, who spotted potential in the domestic market because "New Zealanders already love French rosé". A second Čuvar rosé named Iris comprises 20% Pinot Noir and 80% Syrah, and is priced at NZ$24.99 (£11).
  Vineyards are currently farmed conventionally, though Čuvar isn't ruling out a future in organics. "For now, our focus is on vine health and sustainable practices," says Karen Fistonich. "But we remain open to organic certification in the future." Čuvar is 100% Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand accredited and the winery itself was designed to be a Green Star-rated building. Green Star aims to transform the way that commercial buildings are designed and built in order to "dramatically reduce" carbon footprint. Moving forward, there are murmurings of Čuvar growing its culinary offering at its winery in Bayview, Napier, and an old face might have a hand to play here. "Sharing food and wine with people is in my blood," Sir George Fistonich said. "I opened New Zealand's first winery restaurant, Vidals, in 1979 and am excited to be creating another Hawke's Bay wine and food destination with Čuvar Winery." You can take the man out of the wine business but you can't take the wine business out of the man.]]> The 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification part 3: an evaluation and an appreciation https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-part-3-an-evaluation-and-an-appreciation/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-part-3-an-evaluation-and-an-appreciation/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:57:50 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673375 In the third part of his analysis on 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification, db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay evaluates the wines themselves and asks if the reclassification exercise been well done.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-part-3-an-evaluation-and-an-appreciation/feed/ 0 In the third part of his analysis on 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification, db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay evaluates a representative sample of the wines, noting the quality of panel’s deliberations and being impressed by the consistent value for money that these wines represent even in current market conditions. The troubled recent history of the classification and the current challenges of the global fine wine market have not made life easy for those seeking to make the case for the value of a competitive system of classification for the wines of the Médoc. The result, as the second part of my analysis sought to explain, is that the 2025 edition of the cru bourgeois reclassification contains many fewer wines than its predecessor, with many of its most prominent ‘leavers’ coming from the ranks of the former crus bourgeois exceptionnels. But that, I would argue, has little or nothing to do with the quality of the evaluation process that today determines the classification, so now, I turn to more practical questions. What do these wines taste like? How good are they? Are there credible and consistent differences between wines graded cru bourgeois, cru bourgeois supérieur and cru bourgeois exceptionnel? In short, has the reclassification exercise been well done and is the resulting classification worth the paper on which it has so recently been rewritten? To answer these question I turned to the guardians of the classification, l’Alliance des Crus Bourgeois de Médoc. I invited them to provide me with what they regarded to be a representative sub-set of the wines of the new classification. I insisted that they choose the wines but include within the sample they sent wines at each quality level before and after the reclassification and from each appellation. All wines were tasted in Paris from Zalto and Grassl stemware in January and February 2025, just before the unveiling of the new classification at Vinexpo in Paris. My tasting notes and ratings appear below, arranged alphabetically in appellation groups. To be clear from the outset, this is an indicative and not in any sense a scientific test of the classification system. It could not be and was never intended to be anything other than that. My sample size is small, it is in the end far from truly representative (and random, I imagine, only in the sense that I did not choose it!) and the wines all come from a single vintage. My evaluation is also of the wines themselves and not in any sense of the conditions of their production, the respect for the environment they exhibit nor, of course, the property’s valorisation of its terroir, history and culture (all of which are integral to the jury’s more holistic assessment). It is also, crucially, my evaluation – a personal evaluation and the evaluation of an individual – and not of a panel of experts. It has nothing like the authority of that of the panel itself and draws on nothing even vaguely resembling their collective wisdom. But it is revealing nonetheless I think – not least in that it leads to a much more positive and unequivocal evaluation of the reclassification exercise than my previous reflections on the difficulties of making a competitive system of classification work in Bordeaux today. Indeed, to cut to the chase, in respect of each and every one of the above question my assessment is rather more positive and rather less equivocal that it was in the first part of this pair of articles. Today’s crus bourgeoisie taste like they come from the Médoc; they are well-made and of a high and consistent quality; they represent excellent value for money; and the classification is an effective mechanism and credible guarantor of all of that. The bottom line is that the consumer can buy these wines with confidence without knowing anything very much about the property itself. Second, and perhaps no less significantly, standards have been maintained despite the smaller number of wines in the 2025 edition of the classification and the higher proportion of classified wines at cru bourgeois exceptionnel level. When I conducted a similar assessment after the 2020 classification exercise with 16 similarly selected wines, my ratings ranged from 86-93, with an average of 90.16. Here, after the 2025 reclassification, my ratings range from 87-93+, with an average of 90.30. The three-tiered banding in the classification is also largely confirmed (certainly as well confirmed as one might expect it to be with this kind of a sample size). My ratings for the new crus bourgeois exceptionnels range from 88 to 93+, with an average of 90.86, for the new crus bourgeois supérieurs from 89 to 92+ with an average of 90.75 and for the crus bourgeois from 87 to 88 with an average of 87.3. Considering that my evaluation was of a small sub-set of the wines in the classification and was based on tasting alone and of samples taken from a single vintage, that is a pretty decent match. It merely confirms my sense that the reclassification exercise was exactingly and exhaustively conducted to a very professional standard by seasoned professionals working within appropriately set guidelines. What is particularly pleasing to note is the stylistic diversity of the wines classified at the two upper levels – the crus bourgeois supérieurs and exceptionnels. We have lush, plush, plump wines with lots of substance, body and a fair degree of oak. But we also have refined, elegant, ethereal wines with shimmering mid-palates that express the terroirs from which they hail in a rather different way. The capacity to reward such diversity is a very good thing and I suspect something that was actually in rather shorter supply when the 2003 classification was established. Finally and perhaps most crucially, every single one of these wines is well-made and expresses both the identity of its appellation and the terroir or terroirs from which it is crafted. That again would not have been the case in 2003 (or, at least, not to the same extent) and it reminds us of the transformation that has occurred both in the vineyard and in the cellar throughout Bordeaux over the last 2 decades. For all the full tasting notes, click here.]]> The 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification: tasting notes https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-tasting-notes/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-tasting-notes/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:10:28 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673391 Following his three-part analysis of the 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification, db's Bordeaux correspondent finds there is much to be impressed with in by the consistent value for money that these wines represent even in current market conditions.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-2025-cru-bourgeois-reclassification-tasting-notes/feed/ 0 Following his three-part analysis of the 2025 cru bourgeois reclassification, db's Bordeaux correspondent finds there is much to be impressed with in by the consistent value for money that these wines represent even in current market conditions. Tasting notes – properties listed alphabetically by appellation It is perhaps important note that all of the wines tasted below come from the (excellent) 2020 vintage. They are about as good as we can expect wines at this level to be. A second point to note is that these wines belong to the 2020 classification in that their labels reflect the results of that classification exercise. But none of these wines were of course tasted in the process producing the 2020 classification (since the fruit from which they would be made had not, at that stage, even been harvested). Ironic though it might seem, however, each of these wines was tasted by the panel in determining the results of the 2025 reclassification (even if the results of that exercise can only be used on labels from the 2023 vintage onwards). It is for that reason that I list below both the 2020 classification (as it appears on the labels of the 2020 vintage of these wines) and the results of the 2025 reclassification (in which these wines were assessed).
Chateau AOC 2020 classification 2025 classification Rating
Du Cartillon Haut-Médoc CB Supérieur CB Exceptionnel 88
Cissac Haut-Médoc CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 89
Malescasse Haut-Médoc CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 92
De Malleret Haut-Médoc CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 91
Paloulmey Haut-Médoc CB Supérieur CB Exceptionnel 89
Sénilhac Haut-Médoc CB CB 88
Du Taillan Haut-Médoc CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 93
Lalande Listrac-Médoc CB CB 87
Reverdi Listrac-Médoc CB Supérieur CB Exceptionnel 88
D’Arsac Margaux CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 91
Mongravey Margaux CB Supérieur CB Exceptionnel 93
Paveil du Luxe Margaux CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 90
Fleur de Motte Médoc CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 92
Pierre de Montignac Médoc CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 91
Preuillac Médoc CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 89
St Bonnet Médoc CB CB 87
Lalaudey Moulis-en-Médoc CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 92+
De Côme St-Estèphe CB Supérieur CB Supérieur 91
Le Crock St-Estèphe CB Exceptionnel CB Exceptionnel 93+
Laffitte-Carcasset St-Estèphe CB Supérieur CB Exceptionnel 91
Du Cartillon 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur and, from the 2023 vintage, newly promoted to cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 31% Cabernet Sauvignon; 49% Merlot; 20% Petit Verdot; 12.5% alcohol). A very ‘classical’ 12.5% alcohol – low, in the vintage for a wine with nearly 50 per cent Merlot. Light, fresh, bright and direct but quite acidic too, almost to the point of a mild astringency above all on the finish. This is fine and pure, with a certain creaminess on the attack and an impressive clarity on the mid-palate. But I find the tannins increasingly coarse and even a touch dry towards the, admittedly long and tapering, finish. This will need a few more years in bottle. 88. Cissac 2020 (Haut-Medoc; cru bourgeois supérieur; 57.5% Cabernet Sauvignon; 38% Merlot; 4.5% Petit Verdot; a final yield of just 21 hl/ha due to significant mildew losses; 13% alcohol). Classical and stylish, with a pleasingly dark briary fruit, plenty of fresh wild heather and herbal elements and a plush and plump mid-palate generously filled with fresh juicy berry fruits. It’s maybe just a little strict on the finish, but there’s lots of like here – notably the sapidity and the freshness. 89. Malescasse 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 58% Merlot; 37% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Petit Verdot; 13.5% alcohol). Malescasse is reliably excellent and there is certainly no disappointments here in this fantastic vintage. A lovely deep and intense wine, with quite voluptuous damson, plum and bramble fruit and a little cassis leafiness bringing additional lift and interest. Soft, cool at the core, yet plump and plush with grainy tannins picking out the details like a pointillist’s brush work. Sapid and long on the finish. 92. De Malleret 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 60% Cabernet Sauvignon; 37% Merlot; 3% Petit Verdot; aging in oak barrels, 30% of which are new). Another wine that very comfortably passes the cru bourgeois reclassification ‘sniff test’ – in the context of this tasting it is, clearly, ‘exceptionnel’. With Stephane Derenoncourt as the consultant and its record of consistently over recent vintages, that is no great surprise. This is a little more open-textured than most, a little more dense, compact and chewy than some and with a little more oak influence too – though the wood is already well integrated in the quite hedonistic depths of the mid-palate. This is very much at the top end of the spectrum and remains, despite the oak, quite a classic expression of its terroir. Black cherries, cedar, graphite, a twist of black pepper and super-svelte if considerable tannins – what’s not to like? Needs a little more time in bottle and will surely go the distance. 91. Paloumey 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur and, from the 2023 vintage, newly promoted to cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 50% Cabernet Sauvignon; 44% Merlot; 3% Cabernet Franc; 3% Petit Verdot; 14% alcohol; Axel Marchal is the consultant here). Plummy and quite spicy at first but with plenty of seemingly herb-encrusted dark berry fruits filling the palate as this builds with a little aeration. Impressively dense and compact if a little austere in the context of the vintage with lift and a pleasing menthol note on the finish. Another very reliable wine. Rich and generous in this vintage with quite a refined finish. 89. Sénilhac 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois; 41% Cabernet Sauvignon; 49% Merlot; 10% Petit Verdot; 13% alcohol). Dusty, earthy with quite a pleasingly wild and savage, almost moorland, streak to it. This comes from Saint Seurin-de-Cadourne, to the north of Saint Estèphe and it tastes like it. There’s almost a hint of iodine and sea-spray in the air up here and the wines are a little more austere and foursquare in personality. But the tannins are soft on the attack and there’s plenty of energy to this. Not as complex as some and a little more coarse on the finish, but this certainly deserves its place in the classification. 88. Du Taillan 2020 (Haut-Médoc; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 89% Merlot; 11% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14% alcohol). From Le Taillan-Médoc right on the outskirts of Bordeaux itself (we’re closer here to the congestion of the rocade than to Château Cantemerle!). There’s a lot of Merlot in this and that explains the slightly higher level of alcohol. Axel Marchal is the consultant here which shows both a certain sense of ambition on the part of the property and the interest in the project and the potential seen by one of Bordeaux’s most solicited talents. And this is definitely a standout wine in the tasting. Plush, plump, quite exotic and seductive – a word one doesn’t often associate with the cru bourgeoisie. The oak is present but very cleverly used here, serving to reinforce gently the more floral elements. Plums and dark berry fruits and, unusually for the Médoc in this vintage, a little black cherry too. Chocolate and black forest gâteau. Hedonistic, quite indulgent and highly accessible already but fresh and lithe. A great advert for the classification. 93. Lalande 2020 (Listrac-Médoc; cru bourgeois; 65% Merlot; 30% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Petit Verdot; 12.5% alcohol). Contiguous, as the name perhaps implies, with the perhaps better known Mayne-Lalande. Interestingly, and alongside du Cartillon, this is almost a full degree of alcohol less than any of the other Merlot dominated wines. One of the lightest and most translucent of the entire tasting in the glass. Aerial, certainly, but a little wisp-ish and lacking in depth and intensity. Lightly spiced with fresh red berry fruits – raspberries and strawberries, but also redcurrant and cranberry. This is pure and precise but a little strict with even a touch of astringency on the finish. 87. Reverdi 2020 (Listrac-Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur and, from the 2023 vintage, newly promoted to cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 35% Merlot; 30% Cabernet Sauvignon; 35% Petit Verdot; from a tiny property of just 3 hectares; 13.5% alcohol). We have an extraordinary 35% Petit Verdot here, bringing a slightly bulby floral note and a good scratching of fresh black pepper. There’s also an intriguingly briny, saline, almost iodine note to the minerality. Raspberry and redcurrant, bright and crisp and fresh. I rather like this. It’s very honest and authentic, but the high proportion of Petit Verdot here makes this a little difficult to appreciate at this still early stage. It comes across just a little vegetal and stern, above all on the finish. But it will round off in time. Maybe not the most refined wine in the line-up but this certainly has plenty of character. 88. D’Arsac 2020 (Margaux; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 72% Cabernet Sauvignon; 28% Merlot; a final yield of 40 hl/ha; 13% alcohol; Stephane Derenencourt is the consultant here). There’s lots to like here – above all the signature florality and minerality of the appellation. A delicate peony and iris note draws you into the aromatics where it enrobes and enriches the dark briary fruits. With aeration, wild herbs – above all thyme and rosemary – reveal themselves. They are rapidly joined by the violets that stamp their identity on this wine. Gracious and refined on the soft, again somewhat delicate, entry. But don’t be deluded into thinking that this is a wine with no aging potential. For there is quite a tannic volume here ensuring that this will have a long life ahead of it. Subtle rather than exuberant, but exuding harmony and poise. Another excellent wine from a now extremely reliable address. 91. Mongravey 2020 (Margaux; cru bourgeois supérieur and, from the 2023 vintage, newly promoted to cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 70% Cabernet Sauvignon; 28% Merlot; 2% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol). From Arsac and just a stone’s throw away from Château d’Arsac, also tasted. And there are certain similarities, both in terms of terroir (the fine gravel of the plateau of Arsac) and composition (the only difference really being a tiny splash of Cabernet Franc). Yet this is a somewhat more effusive and exuberant wine and I sense both just a little more extraction and a little more use of oak (though all in moderation). But we have a wine here that is just as expressive of its appellation, with a very evident parfumier’s florality, a little hint of spice box and a lovely plump and velvety mouthfeel. Soft and well-sustained on the finish, with a lovely return to the violet florality right on the finish, this richly deserves its promotion to cru bourgeois exceptionnel. 93. Paveil de Luze 2020 (Margaux; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 80% Cabernet Sauvignon; 20% Merlot; aging in oak barrels, 40% of which are of one use only). A pretty, archetypally Margaux nose, with lovely notes of fresh wild herbs, moor-side heather and spring flowers with cherry, bramble and blueberry fruits. Plush and with a lovely mouthfeel, this is not massive but very fine and sinuous – just as a fine Margaux should be. Fresh, bright and a super expression of the vintage and of its terroir. There’s just a little hint of dryness on the finish. 90. Fleur la Mothe 2020 (Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur; 45% Merlot; 40% Cabernet Sauvignon; 15% Petit Verdot; 13.5% alcohol). There’s been a very steep progression here in recent years and the promotion to cru bourgeois supérieur in the last reclassification – and its reaffirmation in the new classification – are certainly merited. A wine owned and made by a group of consultant oenologues – and it really shows! This is characteristically open, expressive and interesting aromatically, with plenty of vibrant spicy notes, but also a pleasing bright red berry fruitedness and generous floral and more herbal elements. There’s a lovely lavender and wild rosemary note that builds with aeration. Glassy and limpid on the elegant attack, with a well-defined and initially quite slender frame which builds and builds over the palate as the tannins grip and sculpt this. Very impressive and, above all, long on the finish. A candidate for promotion next time? 92. Pierre de Montignac 2020 (Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur; 50% Merlot; 45% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Petit Verdot; 13.5% alcohol). This is lovely aromatically, with a radiantly dark berry fruit generously enrobed in cedar and with subtle floral hints. There’s a touch of graphite too. Supple, soft and beguiling on the entry with a well-defined central spine tightly wrapped in those dark berry fruits – though they seem to lighten in hue as the wine breathes and starts to exhale. Menthol and eucalyptus bring lift to the finish. Very elegant and stylish. 91. Preuillac 2020 (Médoc; cru bourgeois supérieur; 67% Merlot; 33% Cabernet Sauvignon; 13% alcohol). Not a wine, to be fair, that I know well. From a well-situated vineyard of 30 hectares on a combination of gravel and clay-limestone terroirs in Lesparre, it was classified amongst the crus bourgeoisie in 1932 and upgraded in 2020. I find this nicely expressive aromatically, with a distinct almost estuarine ferrous twang to its minerality, a gentle sweet spice and plenty of ripe red and darker berry and stone fruits. If anything, I find this even more impressive in the mouth. The tannins are finely-grained and there’s a plump succulence to this that I like very much. It lacks a certain complexity, but it’s certainly very well made. 89. St Bonnet 2020 (Médoc; cru bourgeois; 60% Merlot; 40% Cabernet Sauvignon; from 133 hectares on clay-gravel soils at Ordonnac, north of St Estèphe; 13.5% alcohol). Light, bright and quite aerial but lacking a little density and concentration in comparison to most of the wines in this tasting. Aromatically, there’s a pleasing hint of the cedar notes to come as this ages. Nicely made, this is limpid and luminous, refreshing and fruit-forward. Accessible now, this will drink well over the next 5 years but it lacks a little complexity. 87. Lalaudey 2020 (Moulis-en-Medoc; cru bourgeois supérieur; 55% Cabernet Sauvignon; 40% Merlot; 5% Petit Verdot; 14% alcohol). A lovely cassis fruit, evident even through the cork taint masking the aromatics (if only lightly) of the first bottle (and, of course, much more so from the second). Sultry, beguiling in its very intense dark berry fruitedness and seductive – not a word one associates often with the cru bourgeoisie (who can be a little austere and ‘proper’ at times)! I love the hint of green Szechuan peppercorn and the really leafy cassis notes – with almost a touch of redcurrant leaf and tomato stem reinforcing the tactile sense of freshness. A little trace of cedar too. This is a seriously beautiful bottle of wine and one of the highlights of the entire tasting. It’s no great surprise to find that Eric Boissenot is the consultant here (both in the sense that he is quick to spy potential and also fabulous in encouraging the very best of choices). I’d easily place this amongst the crus bourgeois exceptionnels, but it’s perfectly possible that this is classed ‘supérieur’ simply because that’s the classification level the property sought. But, if so, and on the evidence of this vintage, they should be even more ambitious! Competitive for ‘wine of the vintage’ status in the appellation (alongside Branas Grand-Poujeaux, though the wines are very different). 92+. De Côme 2020 (St-Estèphe; cru bourgeois supérieur; 45% Merlot; 45% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Petit Verdot; 13% alcohol; certified organic; Eric Boissenot is the consultant). Bright, crisp, fresh, and distinctly herbal aromatically with a very northern Médocain briny and earthy mineral edge to it – indeed, this is actually quite saline and iodine-scented. Fresh with crunchy dark berry fruits and a hint of sage. Limpid and pure on the finish. I like the quality of the tannins and the distinct terroir signature that reminds me a little of Cos Labory. 91. Le Crock 2020 (St Estèphe; cru bourgeois exceptionnel; 47% Cabernet Sauvignon; 40% Merlot; 7% Cabernet Franc; 6% Petit Verdot; 13.5% alcohol). Dark-hued and charged with very dark berry and plum fruits with an earthy-gravelly note too and that rich, gamey, slightly ferrous-saline minerality of the appellation. A hint of cedar and a touch of sweet spice from the oak, but it’s less perceptible in the sultry depths of the mid-palate. Very lively and engaging, charged with dark berry and stone fruits – brambles, blackcurrant, black cherries and baked plums – and big, bold and with more density and concentration than either the 2018 or 2019. This is very impressive – it’s always a stylish and refined wine but there is plenty of depth and substance to this too. The tannins, though considerable, are extremely fine-grained and they contribute to the cool and focussed precision of the juicy finale. A star of the classification and of the appellation. This is to Léoville-Poyferré what de Pez is to Pichon Comtesse de Lalande. 93+. Laffitte Carcasset 2020 (St Estèphe; cru bourgeois supérieur; 53% Cabernet Sauvignon; 44% Merlot; 3% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol; Hubert de Boüard is the consultant here). Rich, spicy, creamily textured and enticing aromatically, this is a soft and initially seductive St Estèphe in this vintage with generous but ultra-fine-grained tannins. The attack is quite ample but the beady tannins immediately take things in charge coaxing and coercing the fruit until it straps itself quite tightly to a well-defined central spine. The effect is to remind one where this comes from and to render the wine a little austere by the time we arrive at a nicely-sustained finish. There’s lots of terroir and appellation character here and this feels (as it should in a way) slightly wild and untamed. Another wine that is made to go the distance and that will need a year or two in bottle before it is really accessible. 91.  ]]> How does the current downturn compare to the past? https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/101-how-does-the-current-downturn-compare-to-the-past/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/101-how-does-the-current-downturn-compare-to-the-past/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 11:30:31 +0000 https://www.drinksbusiness.com/?p=672515 Nearly halfway through the third year of the current down market, the wine trade is undoubtedly in need of respite. But as collectors wait impatiently for a market bounce-back, history can teach us some valuable lessons.

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fine wine monitor – in association with Liv-ex

Nearly halfway through the third year of the current down market, the wine trade is undoubtedly in need of respite. While we cannot know for sure where and when prices will find their floor, turning to previous market cycles can provide some precedence of what to expect. As the recent history shows, from May 2020 to November 2022, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 rose 43.7%. In length and gradient, this up market was not dissimilar to those of 2016-19 and 2009-11, albeit more extreme. The current downturn, however, appears much harsher and more prolonged than any historical examples. Before now, the Fine Wine 1000 had never fallen by more than 13.2%, or had downturns lasting for more than 16 consecutive months. The current downturn is set apart by its breadth – none of the Liv-ex 1000 sub-indices has been immune – but there are historical instances of this kind of cycle.

Lessons from the Fine Wine 50

During Bordeaux’s 2009-2011 bull run, the Fine Wine 50 rose 113.9%. This was partially justified by high demand, driven largely by a very active Chinese market. Bordeaux’s first growths capitalised on this surge by ramping up release pricing. Château Lafite Rothschild, which proved especially popular, increased its ex-London release price from £1,850 per case for the 2008 vintage to £11,000 for 2009. This pricing proved over zealous. Once the Chinese market withdrew, secondary market prices began to fall, and only stabilised once they’d reached their pre-boom prices. The Fine Wine 50 took time to recover, quickly retracing 47.6% of its initial move up from July 2011 to January 2012, but eventually finding its floor in 2014, at its 2008 peak (a 76.4% retracing).

The role of external factors

Just as Bordeaux’s price hikes were caused by the reinvigorated entrance of the Asian market, the steep rise of the Liv-ex 1000 in 2020 was driven by outside interventions – monetary easing and the changing of consumer habits during Covid-19 lockdowns. In this sense, both the 2009-11 and 2020-22 bull runs were artificially created by external factors, and exaggerated by release pricing. In other words, while we should expect to see long-term upward trends in the fine wine market, spikes of this magnitude were unsustainable. Just as the Fine Wine 50 and other affected indices have returned to pre-2009 levels, we have seen the prices of many wines return to pre-Covid levels.

What happens next?

Following the lengthy 2011-13 downturn, prices did not immediately rise. Having lost considerably on Bordeaux purchased at or near the peak, merchants were understandably reluctant to commit to price increases. A recovery period was needed before prices could rise once again. They remained at this floor for over a year. While no other region saw such pronounced price increases, all fell victim to the stagnant period that followed. Although more bullish market participants may be hoping for a swift price recovery in the coming months and years, a sideways-moving market may be a blessing in disguise. With a growing need to draw in the next generation of fine wine consumers, a period of price stability could invigorate the necessary demand to clear out an excess of stock. Some of the Liv-ex 1000’s sub-indices will have further yet to fall before their components present value to buyers. Nonetheless, in some cases, and at the broadest level, key support levels are in sight.

About Liv-Ex

Liv-ex is the global marketplace for the wine trade. Along with a comprehensive database of real-time transaction prices, Livex offers the wine trade smarter ways to do business. It gives access to £81m-worth of wine and the ability to trade with 500 other wine businesses worldwide. It also organises payment and delivery through its storage, transportation and support services. Wine businesses can find out how to price, buy and sell wine smarter at: www.liv-ex.com
]]> Jean-Louis Chave: Rhône Valley icon https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/jean-louis-chave-rhone-valley-icon/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/jean-louis-chave-rhone-valley-icon/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 10:34:47 +0000 https://www.drinksbusiness.com/?p=672505 Shining a spotlight on one of the Hermitage appellation’s most hallowed producers.

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auction update – in association with iDealwine

The work of Jean-Louis Chave has long been admired by wine enthusiasts. His family has been making wine in the Rhône Valley for centuries, and Jean-Louis himself is credited with bringing the Hermitage appellation to the attention of the world. Mature vintages of his Cathelin wine – which hasn’t been officially released for about 10 years now – have become collector ’s items and, because of this, highly sought after by enthusiasts. Extremely rare, as no more than 2,500 bottles are produced even in the best vintages, the secondary auction market goes into a frenzy whenever one comes up for auction. A bottle from 2009 appeared on iDealwine, France’s leading online wine auction house, in 2024, selling for €6,260. This hammer price was the highest that any Rhône Valley wine (from both the northern and the southern areas of the region) achieved on the auction website last year, further cementing Cathelin’s status as a Rhône icon. A bottle of 2000 Cathelin, which is firmly in its drinking window, also made an appearance last year, going under the hammer for €5,383, just €20 less than the last time it was auctioned in 2019, showing that the market has now stabilised after the soaring prices of 2022/23. The wine can be described as ample and concentrated, with a magnificent complexity. As it ages, it develops an amazing tapestry of aromas, such as blackcurrant, prunes, spices and leather, with toasted and smoky notes. But it’s not just the estate’s star wine that gets all the attention. Jean-Louis Chave’s other red wines perform well at auction too. The estate’s Hermitage from 1990 continually attracts high prices, with a bottle selling in January of this year for €1,126. While the price estimate may now be lower than when prices for Rhône Valley wines skyrocketed in 2022, it has still seen an 8.96% increase over the past year. The 1991 vintage of the same wine also enjoys the equal attention from wine enthusiasts. This is perhaps because of its excellent critics’ ratings, with various influential publications scoring the wine 99 or 100 out of 100. Four bottles appeared at iDealwine auctions in 2024, going under the hammer for prices in the range of €1,577 to €2,129. In case you were wondering, Jean-Louis Chave’s red Hermitages can be kept for roughly half a century when they come from good vintages, which 1990 and 1991 were in the northern Rhône.
And white wine lovers are not forgotten about, as the estate also produces a white wine from the Hermitage appellation. This wine, produced from mainly Marsanne and completed by Roussanne, is intense, elegant and creamy, with peach, apricot and hazelnut notes, and its acidity will allow it to age for several decades. According to iDealwine, most of the price estimates of this white Hermitage produced within the past 25 years lie between €200 and €300, fluctuating based on the quality of the vintage. For example, a bottle from 2009 – an exceptional vintage and a wine adored by the critics – has an estimated value of €322 on the French auction website, with a bottle being sold in January 2025 for €344. And, when looking at a more recent vintage which still needs to be left to rest in the cellar, the 2018 of Chave’s white Hermitage is estimated to be worth €313, with bottles sold at auction within the past year all achieving a hammer price above €300.
So what makes this estate so special? Jean-Louis Chave continues the ancestral practices of his forebears, whose work forged the estate’s reputation. He controls the vines’ yields, abstains from using herbicides and artificial fertilisers, and harvests the grapes as late as possible. In the winery, he avoids interfering with the winemaking process as much as possible, preferring to leave the wine to craft its own character. Each plot of grapes is vinified and matured separately, allowing Jean-Louis Chave to blend together the wines in a way that will create the greatest complexity. And that’s not all. There is no written record of the blends from the previous vintage kept at the estate. This means that, with each new vintage, Jean-Louis Chave works to craft a blend with the perfect balance based on the characteristics of the wines in front of him, without any preconceived ideas. His aim is to present a sensual snapshot of the Hermitage appellation, creating a wine that showcases the richness and variety of the area. This is why the estate is so beloved. When iDealwine looked at where bottles of Jean-Louis Chave sold at auction in 2024 were finding their new homes, an interesting trend appeared. While most bottles stayed in France, the average hammer price per bottle was greater elsewhere in the world. The US leads the way in this regard, registering an average hammer price of €696 for the 32 bottles sold in 2024 which made their way across the Atlantic. This trend could be attributed to a scarcity of Jean-Louis Chave’s bottles outside France.

About iDealwine.com

• Founded in 2000, iDealwine is France’s top wine auctioneer and leading online wine auction house worldwide. • Fine Spirits Auction (FSA) is iDealwine’s dedicated spirits platform, launched in partnership with La Maison du Whisky, a French specialist in high-end spirits since 1956. Seven auctions of the finest whisky, rum, Cognac and more take place annually. • Based in Paris, and with offices in Bordeaux and Hong Kong, iDealwine sources rare bottles from European cellars, private collections and direct from producers before meticulously authenticating and shipping to enthusiasts, collectors and trade customers worldwide. • If you are keen to sell your wines or spirits, check out idealwine.com.
]]> Duncan McEuen dies aged 82 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/duncan-mceuen-dies-aged-82/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/duncan-mceuen-dies-aged-82/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 10:25:46 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673297 Duncan McEuen, a former director of the Christie's wine department, died on Friday (7 March) at the age of 82.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/duncan-mceuen-dies-aged-82/feed/ 0 Duncan McEuen, a former director of the Christie's wine department, died on Friday (7 March) at the age of 82. Born in April 1942, McEuen died in Suffolk on 7 March, just shy of his 83rd birthday. Alan Montague-Dennis, director of prestige sales at Mentzendorff, wrote of McEuen: "I last met with Duncan two-years-ago with the late Phil Tuck MW and James Burt at his charming flat in Oxford Gardens. His sitting room was crammed with pictures and works of art from his former life, and photographs of his time at Harrow and the army in the bathroom." "A true gentleman, Duncan apologised for his mobility issues but was sufficiently well organised to instruct his housekeeper to produce three champagne glasses before she signed off for the day," Montague-Dennis shared in his tribute. "We drank Bollinger La Grande Annee and, despite the predicament Duncan found himself in, everything in the world seemed right!" "As an auctioneer, he [McEuen] was an expert with his gavel and travelled extensively around the world selling fine and rare wines," continued Montague-Dennis. "A keen golfer and bridge player, Duncan was always a generous and interesting host. My life was enriched when I spent time with him." In addition to his time at Christie's, McEuen was a member of private members' club Boodle's, on St James's Street, serving as chairman of the wine committee. A memorial service for McEuen is due to be held in London in either June or July. He is survived by his son, James.]]> Average barrel price at Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges sale soars by 41.5% https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/average-price-at-hospices-de-nuits-st-george-sale-soars-by-41/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/average-price-at-hospices-de-nuits-st-george-sale-soars-by-41/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 10:00:12 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673249 The average price of a barrel of wine at the 64th Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction, which was held on Sunday (9 March), saw the average prices of a barrel rise 41.5% on last year on the back of the smallest harvest in over sixty years. 

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/average-price-at-hospices-de-nuits-st-george-sale-soars-by-41/feed/ 0 The average price of a barrel of wine at the 64th Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction, which was held on Sunday (9 March), saw the average prices of a barrel rise 41.5% on last year on the back of the smallest harvest in over sixty years.  The auction, which was organised by French auction house iDealwine for the first time, raised €856,950 in total (excluding the charity pièce). This was a marked decline from the €2,281,500 (£1.94m) raised last year, but this was due to the 2024 being the lowest yielding harvest since 1961, down nearly 60% in yield-terms on the previous year. With yields down to around 9.5 hectolitres per hectare, only 36 barrels were produced of the 2024 vintage, compared to 150 of the 2023 vintage sold last year - a drop of 75.7 % - or 160 in 2022. However, the sale was heralded a success, as the average price of the 288-litre pièce rose significantly to €22,422. This was close to the all-time record set in 2022 of €22,807, iDealwine said, up from €15,843 last year. The red premier crus, saw an average price of €28,815 with the most expensive wine at the auction, the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Cuvée des Sires de Vergy, climbing to €55,000, up 34.5% on last year's hammer price of €41,000. According to Laurent Delaunay of Burgundian producer and negociant house Edouard Delaunay, "there was a lot of competition, simply because there was, there were very little barrels available." Guillaume Koch, director of the Hospices Civils de Beaune, which represents all four Hospices sites of Beaune, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Arnay-le-Duc and Seurre, said the team were delighted with the auction result, "We had hoped for a small rise in the pièce prices, and we had a wonderful surprise with the records," he said. "The sale of the bottles and magnums from past vintages allowed a few great wine enthusiasts to indulge. We are very happy with the result and the contribution of the two exceptional patrons.” The auction also saw a piece of white-wine from Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Terres Blanches sold for €27,000 (+28.6 %) -  a rarity as Chardonnay covers only 5% of the appellation, and this was completed by a feuillette (a 114-litre barrel) which sold for €16,000. In order to compensate for the shortfall of the vintage and boost the appeal of the auction to those attending, the second half of the sale was devoted to bottles of back vintages of Nuits St George wines from 2005 to 2017, a first for the annual auction, which raised €60,950, equivalent to €127 per bottle, when scaled to 750ml. It was, Delaunay said, a very special auction not only due to the smaller yields pushing the “dynamic” bidding in the room, but also due to the decision to offer back vintages of Nuits-Saint-Georges wines - a one-off decision, according to iDealwine. This comprised 240 standard bottles, made up of six-bottle cases and mixed cases, and 120 magnums lots of wines dating from 2005-2017. As Delaunay explained, it is rare to find back vintages of Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wines on the auction or secondary market and although this meant there was "little reference" in terms of pricing the wines, he said, as it was mostly private individual who buy them from the sale, and then drink that at home, "everything was sold very easily, with some competition between the buyers, so it was a very dynamic." Meanwhile the charity pièce in aid of Coucou nous voilou - a French charity that works to brighten the lives of children and teenagers in hospital through trips, games and murals -  has raised €53,900 so far, with customers signing up for a bottle, rather than being sold at auction. In addition, two rare and historic bottles of Hospices Nuits-Saint-Georges were donated to raised extra funds for the charity from Delaunay's personal cellar. The two-bottle case, collected by his father and grandfather, comprised a Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru from 1955 and another form 1959, which raised €2,000. “In my personal cellar I have some wines from the 20s, 40s and 50s, when my grandfather and father were buying them, and I decided them to donate two bottles,” Delaunay said. “We were very, very pleased to do that.”

Reputation boost

According to Delaunay, although the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges sale, like it’s better-known cousin, the Hospices de Beaune sale, operate with “their own dynamic, disconnected from the wider market for Burgundy” the sale would help to boost not only the reputation of the sale itself, but also of the 2024 vintage. “The quality of the wines made by Jean-Marc Maron are outstanding – great wines this year and to some extent, and everyone knows the 2024 was difficult – it brought a natural concentration which compensated the lesser good climate and the wines were very good,” he said. In the last 20-30 yrs, the Hospices de Nuits St George has been developing its reputation and image, he added. “It is different, they are special wines you don’t’ find anywhere else and although it doesn’t have any influence on the normal market, it’s good for the market and good for the vintage reputation – it will participate to improve the reputation of the 2024 vintage.”

Litmus test

It is also proving an interesting litmus for Burgundy, given the additional challenges beyond the small harvest, which includes the market  being  a little on pause for the time being, there is some slowing down” combined with a “not very satisfactory” geopolitical situation. This had led many to, perhaps not worry, but to wonder how the sale would go, Delaunay  said. As he admitted, in the past, Edouard Delaunay has been one of the biggest buyers, however, with prices increasing by more than 40%, many customers were forced to sit this one out. “Unfortunately we didn’t buy as much [this year] – I buy on behalf of some customers but due to the market situation not all my clients they were able to increase their prices by 41%, so it is probably the smallest amount that we’ve bought,” he said. This is likely to have been the case across the board – with very little wine around from the 2024 vintage, not everyone would have been willing to pay the increase prices. So far, there also hasn't been a breakdown of clients by country, but the appointment of French online auctioneer iDealwine, which was announced in September was intended as a “strategic move to further expand the reach of the auction beyond Burgundy”, the organisers previously said. It is hoped that this will further raise the sale's already increasing profile, and boost its international appeal and attract a wider clientele. Delaunany said it was hard to tell at this stage whether this had been successful, as many key buyers in the room, notably Maison Albert Bichot and Paul Jaboulet Aîné, were likely to be buying on behalf of both local and international customers. However he pointed out that the better-known Hospices de Beaune sale was still largely dominated by French negociants by around two-thirds.]]> Singapore’s fine wine scene has ‘come a long way’, says BBR https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/singapores-fine-wine-scene-has-come-a-long-way-says-bbr/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/singapores-fine-wine-scene-has-come-a-long-way-says-bbr/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 09:34:00 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673229 Charlie Rudd, a fourth-generation family member of Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR), has said the UK-based wine merchant is planning double-digit growth, driven by growing interest from Asian consumers.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/singapores-fine-wine-scene-has-come-a-long-way-says-bbr/feed/ 0 Charlie Rudd, a fourth-generation family member of Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR), has said the UK-based wine merchant is planning double-digit growth, driven by growing interest from Asian consumers. Singapore's fine wine scene has 'come a long way', says BBR BBR is planning for year-on-year double digit-growth for 2024, Charlie Rudd, the fourth-generation family member who now leads the business in Asia, told Epicure. Growth is being driven by increased interest and passion among Asian consumers wanting to drink and collect fine wine and spirits, he said. The fine wine merchant established its first Asian office in Hong Kong 25 years ago, and the region has since become a key market. BBR set up its Singapore branch in 2012. Rudd said the fine wine market in the city-state had grown rapidly in the years since. “The market in Singapore has come a long way in a short space of time and is now operating as a regional hub across Southeast Asia,” he said. Singapore is small, home to just 5.9 million people across only 719km². As such, it's important to service the market well. Rudd described there being "two degrees of separation across customers" — a fact which means word spreads fast among collectors. “The network is extremely close and collectors, more often than not, know each other to some extent,” Rudd said. “With such a close network of collectors, colleagues and friends, trust and proof of concept, exceptional service from soil to sip become extremely important with word travelling fast.” The business has come up against challenges in recent months, entering into redundancy consultation with 30 staff worldwide. Job losses have been brought about due to tough market conditions and increases to National Insurance contributions in the UK, the company has said. However, in Asia BBR sees potential for a bright spot. Bangkok, for instance, offers new opportunities with the recent reduction of the wine tax in early 2024, Rudd told Epicure. BBR also announced the launch of a new auction arm in October 2024. Both the UK and Asia will be key markets for the merchant’s new auctions arm, Geordie Willis, director of new ventures for Berry Bros. & Rudd told db at the time, adding that the auctions’ online format will give them “global appeal”.]]> London beats Paris for fine wine dining https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/london-beats-paris-for-fine-wine-dining/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/london-beats-paris-for-fine-wine-dining/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 13:06:36 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673085 London is ranked second in fine wine offering by global cities, three places above Paris in fifth, according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2025.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/london-beats-paris-for-fine-wine-dining/feed/ 0 London is ranked second in fine wine offering by global cities, three places above Paris in fifth, according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2025. The new study shows that London leads the world in terms of depth of fine wine offering, with 519 restaurants featuring fine wine from the world’s top 250 wine and Champagne houses. In these 519 restaurants, 60.8% of their total offering comes in at a value of more than U$200. In terms of quality of selection, London ranks highly with an average listing of 428 different wines in its top restaurants with a median price of US$741 per bottle. This only falls shy of New York, which offers in its 480 fine restaurants an average of 506 different wines, 66.5% valued at above US$200 and an average price per bottle of US$747. Dubai had the highest median price per bottle at US$748, but no other city rivalled New York, London and Dubai in terms of average pricing per bottle, with Singapore and Shanghai coming in fourth and fifth with an average price per bottle of US$627 and US$558 respectively. In terms of percentages of bottles valued over US$200, Dubai and New York lead the way with 67.9% and 66.5%. Hong Kong and Singapore are top when it comes to the percentage of most expensive wines available in top 20 restaurants with 11.7% for Hong Kong and 11.2% for Singapore. New York and London tie for third place at 9.4% each. Paris maintains a relatively high number of fine restaurants at 414 and an average of 63.6% of their listings being above US$200. However, in the Wealth Report’s list of the top 10 wine cities, Paris comes in ninth in terms of variety at only 177 different wine listings on average, and has a lower average price per bottle than London at US$551, with only 8% of the most expensive wines being available in top 20 restaurants.

London Calling

As to why London restaurants have overtaken those in Paris for fine wine offering, one can reason that an influx in new luxury hotels over the past few years has brought in a large number of affluent individuals and families, who are willing to pay for the best wines in the world. Knight Frank reported that “London alone will have seen the arrival of 20 new five-star hotels in the five years to 2028 - a global record.” The increase in fine wine offering comes at an interesting time, when in 2024 the Henley Cities Report showed a decline of 10% in the last decade of millionaires calling London home. It seems that the success of London in the Wealth Report can be primarily attributed to increased tourism from high networth individuals and possibly an increased interest in luxury wines from consumers. Caroline Meesemaecker, the owner and CEO of Wine Services, noted that Monaco, Dubai and Seoul are the cities to watch when it comes to the growth of fine wine offering in luxury restaurants. In terms of what wines the top ten cities are choosing to drink, Meesemaecker reported that “the US$200-$400 range thrives on experience-driven consumers, especially millennials, who are choosing premium wines such as Tignanello and Lynch-Bages". "The US$1,000+ segment is surging with demand from collectors and investors for labels such as La Tâche, Pétrus, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Harlan Estate," Meesemaecker continued. "This polarisation signals a market where affordable luxury and ultra-rare investments are shaping the future, while mid-tier spending remains stagnant.” Consumers are becoming more focussed on drinking less and instead drinking better post-pandemic, this is reflected in an increased spending per bottle. For Champagne, Dom Pérignon, and for still wine, Sassicaia, seem to be trending currently. In the case of the latter, Meesemaecker pointed to its offering of “Bordeaux-like elegance with a distinct Italian identity” as the reason for its success. This possibly reflects a wider market decline for Bordeaux, and the recent success of Super Tuscan wines.]]> Bonhams boosts UK and Europe with new head of wine https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-boosts-uk-and-europe-with-new-head-of-wine/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-boosts-uk-and-europe-with-new-head-of-wine/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:49:26 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673141 Auction house Bonhams has appointed a new head of wine for the UK and Europe, based in the UK.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/bonhams-boosts-uk-and-europe-with-new-head-of-wine/feed/ 0 Auction house Bonhams has appointed a new head of wine for the UK and Europe, based in the UK. Mick O’Connell MW, who graduating from the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2016 as Ireland’s youngest Master of Wine, will head up the auction UK and European fine wine operations, and spearhead growth strategies across the region. O’Connell was the founder of Irish start-up wine retail group Neighbourhood Wine, having spent time as a wine portfolio developer for Findlater & Co. He was also a retail manager for Handford Wines, and a wine columnist for the Ireland’s Business Post, as well as a head judge for the International Wine & Spirits Competition. Amayès Aouli, Bonhams’ global head of wine & spirits welcomed O’Connell, who he described as a highly respected professional in the industry “The UK & Europe regions are crucial for Bonhams’ growth, and Mick’s wealth of experience and knowledge will support the expansion of Bonhams’ Wine & Spirits department,” he said. O’Connell said he was thrilled to be joining a strong global team at such an exciting time for Wine & Spirits and looked forward to using his expertise across the trade to “enhance the success of this prestigious auction house committed to growth across the UK & Europe and beyond.” The move is the latest in Bonhams’ continued investment in its wine & spirits department, following last year’s  appointment of Amayès Aouli as global head of wine & spirits in January 2024. Other recent appointments include Terrence Tang to head up its key Asia operations, joining as Bonham's head of wine & spirits from Zachys Wine Auctions, and a reshuffle of its US Wine & Spirits department to drive expansion which included the promotion of Bonhams veteran Marie Keep to heading up for wine across Bonhams Americas, Louis Krieger appointed as global business director for Bonhams wine and spirits and the appointment of Amelia Krusell as a senior specialist for fine wines based in New York. In an interview with db, last year, Aouli also revealed his plans to innovate and unite Bonham’s local expertise with its global footprint, as well as creating new formats of sales and partnering with producers and charitable organisation.]]> Blue Nun’s Peter Sichel dies aged 102 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/blue-nuns-peter-sichel-dies-aged-102/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/blue-nuns-peter-sichel-dies-aged-102/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:49:07 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=673069 Wine producer and international spy Peter Sichel has died at the age of 102 following a life of espionage, intrigue and plenty of Blue Nun.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/blue-nuns-peter-sichel-dies-aged-102/feed/ 0 Wine producer and international spy Peter Sichel has died at the age of 102 following a life of espionage, intrigue and plenty of Blue Nun. Peter Sichel, one of the global wine trade's most fascinating figures, died on 25 February 2025 at his home in Manhattan. Born in Mainz, Germany, in 1922 to a Jewish family, Peter Sichel was exposed to the world of wine at a young age with his grandfather owning the H. Sichel Söhne winery, which he had established in 1857. Sichel was educated in England, first at St Cyprian’s Preparatory School and then Stowe School, before starting an apprenticeship in his grandfather’s office in Bordeaux. His parents fled Germany, and the growing influence of the Nazi party, to move to France. When the Axis forces conquered France, Sichel was imprisoned, eventually escaping to the US, where he joined the Office of Strategic Services (being multi-lingual no doubt helped to secure his position), and embarked upon a career as a spy. Sichel ran agents in Germany, using prisoners of war to infiltrate the German western front. During this period he met and worked with Jack Hemingway, the son of Ernest Hemingway, until Hemingway was captured by the Germans.  After the war Sichel worked for the Strategic Services unit in Berlin, reporting in early 1946 on the methods used by the Soviets to control political parties in occupied Germany (later East Germany). Sichel then worked for the CIA in Berlin, Washington and Hong Kong, at one point ascending to the role of Head of the CIA in Berlin, before leaving the agency in 1960.

Return to the wine trade

Sichel returned to the wine trade, taking over his family business in Germany, although he continued to reside primarily in the US. One of the first key decisions he made was to appoint the Schieffelin Company, an importer and distributor, to take on the family's portfolio, which included a German white wine called Blue Nun. Sichel famously positioned this as a “wine that could be drunk throughout an entire meal”, and few could have anticipated the commercial success it would enjoy over the next few decades. Despite releasing its first vintage in 1921, Blue Nun became wildly popular in both the US and the UK in the '70s and '80s, selling for the same price as some first and second-growth Bordeaux.  A series of radio adverts in the 1970s, featuring the comedy act Stiller and Meara, boosted Blue Nun sales in the US by 500%. At its peak popularity in the 1980s, more than 1.25 million cases of Blue Nun were sold in the US per year, plus another 300,000 in the UK, 200,000 in Canada and 50,000 in Australia. In 1988 Sichel diversified his wine interests by planting his own vineyard in the village of Cucugnan, in the the Languedoc-Roussillon, with Grenache, Syrah, Carignan and Roussanne, which is still productive today. The following year, in 1989, Sichel received the Distinguished Service Award from the Wine Spectator, and took the role of president of the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1991. He sold his company, including the rights to Blue Nun, in 1995 to Germany wine company Langguth-Erban, although maintained his role as the principal shareholder of the Bordeaux château Forcas-Hosten in Listrac until 2006 when he sold it to members of the Hermes family.

Sichel family today

Two of his children, Alex and Sylvia Sichel, went into filmmaking and screenwriting, while his other daughter Bettina followed in his footsteps and is now a partner in Californian winery Lauren Glen Vineyard. The extended Sichel family also owns Château Palmer, Château Angludet, Château Argadens and Château Daviaud. Today, Domaine Peter Sichel is run by Peter's grandson Alexander Sichel, who converted the estate to organic and biodynamic viticulture. Bottles are currently available in the UK via Berry Bro. & Rudd, starting from around £25.    ]]> The Big Interview: David Parker https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-big-interview-david-parker/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-big-interview-david-parker/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:15:35 +0000 https://www.drinksbusiness.com/?p=672471 David Parker, president of the National Association of Wine Retailers in the US and CEO of Benchmark Wine Group, talks rare wines, political pressures and why data is a “great equaliser” with Sarah Neish.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/the-big-interview-david-parker/feed/ 0 David Parker, president of the National Association of Wine Retailers in the US and CEO of Benchmark Wine Group, talks rare wines, political pressures and why data is a “great equaliser” with Sarah Neish.  Few people hold the golden key to the US wine trade quite like David Parker. The CEO of Benchmark Wine Group, the biggest rare wine retailer in the United States, is also president of the National Association of Wine Retailers (NAWR), representing more than 75 members across North America. Additionally, Parker heads up First Growth Technologies, which offers cutting-edge tech services for collectors and wine professionals. Last year, as though his dance card wasn’t already full, Parker also joined the Society of Medical Friends of Wine. “I think I’m the only member that hasn’t worn a stethoscope professionally, but they let me in anyway,” he says good-humouredly. When he speaks to the drinks business, it is shortly after an announcement made by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former US Surgeon General, in which Dr. Murthy called for cancer warnings to be printed on wine labels. The recommendation did not exactly have the NAWR popping corks in excitement. Calling the communication “purposefully misleading”, Parker says the Surgeon General’s comments are part of an agenda being pushed by neo-prohibitionists who are “collecting a lot of money and doing a lot of lobbying”. “It’s disingenuous to say that, because something contains alcohol, then it’s bad for your health,” he adds. “The overall effect on cancer risk from alcohol is about 1%, but certain alcoholic drinks such as red wine have been proven to bring down the risk of heart disease and stroke. And in the US, particularly, heart disease is a much bigger threat than cancer…”

Rude health

Thankfully for Parker, the rare wine sector is enjoying rude health, and a strategic move by Benchmark in January 2025 is likely to chart the future course of the category. The company’s acquisition of Sonoma-based retailer Wine Spectrum has created “a powerhouse of rare wine expertise”, says Parker. Most exciting for US collectors is that the merger brings together the crème de la crème of both old and new vintages – though all as satisfyingly difficult to get hold of as an albatross egg. As Parker explains, Wine Spectrum focuses on “hard-to-get current vintages”, whereas Benchmark’s modus operandi is “super-impossible-to-get, very old back vintages”. The customers of each company also typically occupy opposite ends of the collector demographic. “Benchmark’s customers are high net worth individuals, usually Gen X or Baby Boomers, while Spectrum attracts younger, emerging collectors, who have just started their own cellars,” Parker says. Benchmark also sells to retailers, distributors and Michelin-star restaurants, all of which will likely benefit from the unification of both companies’ product catalogue when they are bought together this year on one website.

Rare underground scene

According to Parker, “there’s a rare wine underground scene in the US, where groups of collectors in almost every state meet up to share and talk about their wines. It’s a great place to learn from each other”. The underground chatter— and the sales data —indicate that the wines US collectors are most interested in right now are from Burgundy, Bordeaux and California, in that order. “The western states, from Texas westward, tend to consume more American wine, or more specifically, Californian wine,” he says. “The east coast of the US tends to be a bit more Eurocentric. For that reason most of the big auction houses are on the east coast.” Parker adds that he is also seeing “a lot of Champagne start to move in the US market, both the grandes marques and growers”, and name-checks Egly-Ouriet as one grower Champagne that’s particularly hot property. “Everyone’s interested in them,” he says excitedly.

Political machinations

But preferences and availability could be set to change. With Donald Trump sworn in for his second term as US President on 20 January, America is diving headfirst into the unknown, with more than a few sharks swimming in the pool. Just how immune is the rare wine sector to politics? In Parker ’s view, political machinations “do tend to play a significant role” in the success of rare wine trading, with Republican and Democrat governments each bringing “different challenges”. With Trump back in the White House, Parker is “concerned about the potential tariffs coming in, which will make it harder for us to restock from some of our favourite sources in Europe”. But he adds that, under President Biden, “we had pronouncements such as the one from the Surgeon General, which is not true and not helpful.” One saving grace, he says, is that high net worth individuals tend to be “more insulated from economic up and down turns, as well as from misinformation”. But, as soon as any government gets involved with the wine industry, he emphasises, “things get complicated.”
Rare bird: Benchmark focuses on sourcing hard-to-find vintages It’s partly due to government policy that Parker chose to base Benchmark Wine Group in California and Washington DC. “Alcohol is the only product for which the Constitution decides how it will be managed, so every US state has its own set of alcohol laws and a large bureaucracy surrounding them. In many cases, alcohol is the state’s biggest money maker,” he says. “California and Washington DC have the most liberal laws around selling alcohol in the US, so it’s no accident that we’re based in those two locations.” Following the Wine Spectrum acquisition, Parker is also eyeing up Florida. “A lot of New Yorkers have moved there in recent years, or have holiday homes there,” he explains. “Florida is also one of the more free states in terms of shipping wine into the US.” Not to mention the number of affluent golfers with ready cash to burn on bottles.

Silicon Valley

Unusually for such a prolific face in the wine world, Parker wasn’t born into a great wine dynasty, nor did he emerge on the scene as the protegé of a renowned winemaker. His professional life began in California’s Silicon Valley, where he forged a successful career in computer science and engineering. “Along the way, I got interested in wine and bought my first vineyard in the Anderson Valley, Geyserville,” Parker says. “I was selling my grapes to people like Robert Mondavi, so I accidentally got into the high end of the wine world right from the start. “Eventually, on the advice of the late Burt Williams [who helped put California Pinot Noir on the map in the 1980s], I bought another vineyard up in Oregon.” As he slowly amassed hectares, Parker started up Brentwood Wine in 1998 from his garage, “which is where all good businesses should start, by the way”.

Democratising rare wine

Being given the opportunity to buy The Wine Market Journal in 2002 was a game-changer for Parker. An enormous collection of data that tracks every trade of every wine sold at auction by the major houses in Europe, Asia and the US, the journal makes it possible to see at a glance exactly what’s trading and for how much. Parker sees the data as being essential to democratising the rare wine industry, as it is available to all for a nominal fee (membership packages start from about US$9.95 per year). “It’s the great equaliser between buyers and sellers,” he insists. “Rare wines are very thinly traded products, so you want to see every single trade of that wine.” The journal currently holds the sale prices of more than 2.5 million wines. Being personally acquainted with the heads of all the major global auction houses (Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Acker Merrall & Condit, etc), means that one perk of the job is getting the heads-up whenever exciting wines appear on the scene. “Because we own The Wine Market Journal we get every single lot of every single auction sale before it takes place, so we have the info on everything that’s coming to market, ahead of time,” he says. It puts Benchmark in a position to “bid broadly”, which in turn helps Parker to take the temperature of the rare wine scene. “If we win a large portion of our bids, then we know that it’s a weak market, because we tend to be value bidders aiming for the low end,” he reveals. “On the other hand, if we win a small portion of our total bids, then we know the market is strong.”
Sonoma sunshine: Parker’s first vineyard acquisition was in the valley The Wine Market Journal has also played its part in the great wine tech revolution, something Parker and his teams have led the charge on in the United States. “Wine is such a unique product that none of the existing web engines really did the job right, which is why we custom-designed and coded our own software,” he says. “From the moment we get a rare wine in-house, it’s made immediately visible on the site and is automatically priced based on other realtime prices in the industry. Collectors can then order that wine directly from the same website.” With everything stashed under one virtual ‘roof ’, it naturally leaves one vulnerable to hackers or bugs potentially destabilising the business, but Parker isn’t unduly concerned. “We’re fortunate enough to have the original developer on staff, so if something were to go wrong he could find it and fix it almost straightaway,” he says. Despite the wine world being “notoriously techno-phobic”, Parker believes we’ve reached the point where tech is “absolutely needed for every aspect of a wine business”, from inventory to shipping, which he says “is the biggest cost for our company – and for most of the auction houses”. It’s also becoming increasingly vital to be able to send marketing communications via SMS as “more than half of e-commerce transactions are now made on a smartphone”.
These new capabilities, Parker says, will help the wine trade not only to survive, but to thrive, although he has reservations about artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT’s ability to craft wine reviews. “Like any tool, AI can be misused,” he says. “I told our wine writers they can use ChatGPT for research purposes, but they’d better not be copying and pasting. The fingerprint of this kind of AI is that it tries to be too balanced, too vague.” In other words, the exact opposite of the hyper-specific nuances of a vintage. As for the former US Surgeon General and his rather unambiguous advice, Parker freely admits he was “happy to see him go”.  
]]> Master Winemaker 100: David Landini https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-david-landini/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-david-landini/#respond Thu, 06 Mar 2025 10:14:57 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=672605 The general manager and CEO of Villa Saletta tells db about ancient inspiration, mixing genres and the importance of biodiversity to his approach.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/master-winemaker-100-david-landini/feed/ 0 The general manager and CEO of Villa Saletta tells db about ancient inspiration, mixing genres and the importance of biodiversity to his approach. A native of Tuscany, David Landini studied Viticulture & Oenology at Florence University after gaining an initial degree in Agricultural Technology & Science. In 2002, he joined Marchesi Frescobaldi to help develop agriculture and viticulture at three wine estates. Landini’s career has also taken in another high-profile Tuscan family wine dynasty, Marchesi Antinori, where his technical expertise helped to develop four new vineyard estates. In 2014, he joined the historic Villa Saletta winery, perched high in the Tuscan hills, with the clear goal of making amazing wines and building a brand-new, state-of-the-art cellar.

What job did you imagine yourself doing when you were seven years old?

When I was seven years old, I was obsessed with the architecture of the ancient Greeks and their way of constructing perspective geometries for temples, theatres, palaces and avenues. So I wanted to be an architect. Even when I think about a wine, I still do it with that old-fashioned tension.

Who first led you down the winemaking career path, and how?

In my family, agriculture and, in particular, viticulture and winemaking have always been an integral part of daily life. My grandfather on my mother’s side of the family, who did some winemaking, gave me my first taste of it. But it was definitely contact with the iconic noble Tuscan families with whom I took my first steps in this world, the Frescobaldis and the Antinoris, that turned the light on.

What’s the most recent lesson this job has taught you?

This work continues to be a source of inspiration. The latest lesson is the ability to be resilient, adaptable, flexible and prepared for rapid change. You always try to plan for every little thing, but then you always have to deal with rapid change by adapting as quickly as possible.

If you were a wine, what would your back label say?

Eclectic, but still bound by tradition. A modern taste, but with ancient memories. Have fun and live in the moment with the utmost happiness.

What’s the last book you read?

I am a big fan of Sicily and of Andrea Camilleri’s literature. The last book I read was Riccardino, about the last case of Detective Montalbano. He is an incredible character who, like me, loves good food and drink.

What’s the last live music performance you saw?

I saw Stefano Bollani, one of Italy’s greatest jazz pianists. He is able to mix all genres of music, a bit like a winemaker does with wines.

What frustrates you most about the world of wine?

Often the wine world is either self-referential, brand-bound or, on the other hand, too unconventional and alternative. From what I know, in the end, a good wine always has a reason to be appreciated by everyone.

Which sustainability initiative are you most proud of, and why?

I think biodiversity is the most important factor to improve our environment and the quality of a vineyard, and then a wine. There is a series of activities that need to be managed like a musical orchestra: introducing antagonistic insects, planting meadows with reblooming varieties that increase soil fertility, special green manure mixtures, total reduction of chemicals, meticulous improvement of each step of the process, planting forests in the valley bottoms to thermoregulate the macro-environment, avoiding monocultures and being respectful in the winery, producing and using renewable energy. I am proud to combine all these and other activities.

If you could change one thing about your wine region, what would it be?

The concentration of property in a few hands is something that is happening, and it is taking away the diversity of style, product and identity that has always been part of our culture. The Guelph and Ghibelline eras, although very fractious and parochial, I think deeply shaped our identity.

Which winemaker do you most admire, and why?

I admire many winemakers in my region, but if I have to choose one, and even though I have never worked with him, I think Carlo Ferrini’s style and vision is the one that has most inspired me.

Which missing skill do you most wish you possessed?

Having good eyesight... just kidding! I’m very thoughtful and empathetic, but sometimes I get inflamed by things I think are unfair. This is where I would like to have the calmness and ability to approach a dialogue with empathetic patience and reasoning, even if I fundamentally disagree with the subject matter.

What’s your idea of a perfect holiday?

Family, friends, music, good food, good wine, fresh air, sea and mountains. Oh my God, I was forgetting: no mobile phone.

What is the most pressing personal or professional ambition you’d like to fulfil?

I would like to be a good dad whose children will also remember the ability to make good (hopefully great!) wines.

What would your final meal be? And what would you drink with it?

A good, eight-centimetre Chianina steak with field salad and roast potatoes. I would like to have two wines with it, as it is very big: Château Latour 1990 and also a nice glass of Brunello di Montalcino 1997, so we have two taste profiles that go well with the meat. Patrcia Stefanowicz MW wrote this tasting note for Villa Saletta's Master medal-winning wine at The Global Sangiovese Masters 2024.

Fattoria Villa Saletta Chiave di Saletta 2019

  • Producer: Fattoria Villa Saletta
  • Region: Tuscany
  • Country: Italy
  • Grape varieties: 50% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc
  • ABV: 14%
  • Vintage: 2019
  • Approx. retail price: £28
This wine, Super Tuscan in style, has a deep ruby core and a touch of brick on the rim. The lovely nose exhibits dark cherry, blackberry and ripe plum fruit, cedar wood and hints of hedgerow and balsamic. The palate is packed with dark fruits, echoing the nose, and plenty of coconut, white pepper, cinnamon and allspice, framed by silky tannins and crisp acidity. An exciting, complex wine to match haunch of venison and a mélange of root vegetables.]]> iDealwine hails strong year as it anticipates 2025 opening of New York office https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/idealwine-hails-strong-year-as-it-anticipates-2025-opening-of-new-york-office/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/idealwine-hails-strong-year-as-it-anticipates-2025-opening-of-new-york-office/#respond Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:42:15 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=672373 iDealwine saw a 6% boost in revenue during 2024 on the back of increased volumes of wine sold and record prices, it has revealed, as it announces the opening of offices in New York. 

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/idealwine-hails-strong-year-as-it-anticipates-2025-opening-of-new-york-office/feed/ 0 iDealwine saw a 6% boost in revenue during 2024 on the back of increased volumes of wine sold and record prices, it has revealed, as it announces the opening of offices in New York.  The online wine auction site hit revenue of €53.2 million (excluding tax) it said, despite a slump in the fine wine market. Its results revealed a 17.7% uptick in volume sold through its subsidiary International Wine Auction, with the equivalent of 261,465 75cl bottles being sold, although the average price of a bottle declined by nearly 2% (1.9%) to €149. Overall, this contributed to turnover up 15% to €39.1 million. Meanwhile, its joint venture with La Maison du Whisky, Fine Spirits Auction, which was started in 2020, generated €2.1 million of spirit sales. It argued that prices were “stabilising”, with the average price at auction for bottles of Burgundy wine remaining unchanged from 2023 at €250 – although iconic Côte de Nuits producer Romanée-Conti bucked the trend seen of declining prices by seeing its wines appreciate in value by +6%. The top price paid for a bottle was a Romanée-Conti from the 2020 vintage which was bought for €20,375. Cyrille Jomand, CEO of iDealwine and certified auctioneer, attributed some of the success to a major update of its website, “which offer wine enthusiasts around the world so much more fluidity when purchasing bottles,” he said. He added that the company’s co-founders feel “confident” about 2025, citing the company’s new role in organising the historic Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges auction, that takes place this Sunday (9 March) at the Clos de Vogues and online. “iDealwine has worked to modernise this auction as well as giving it international exposure as up until now, it’s been Burgundy’s best kept secret,” he said. Jomand also referred to the forthcoming opening of a new office in New York, its sixth office after Paris (established in 2001), Hong Kong (2013), Bordeaux (2019), Beaune and Singapore (2023). Deputy managing director Lionel Cuenca, added that the “momentum” of the American market, as well as the the quality of clients already using its services offered “a unique opportunity to develop iDealwine’s presence in the country” – in spite of additional import fees and tariffs likely to be added to European products.]]> Hawke’s Bay rebounds with ‘exceptional vintage’ after cyclone https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/hawkes-bay-rebounds-with-exceptional-vintage-after-cyclone-gabrielle/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/hawkes-bay-rebounds-with-exceptional-vintage-after-cyclone-gabrielle/#respond Wed, 05 Mar 2025 10:31:17 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=671405 Sandra Hazlehurst, mayor of Hastings, New Zealand, tells db about the intensive two-year clean-up the region has undergone following Cyclone Gabrielle, and how Hawke's Bay is looking at its brightest future yet.  

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/hawkes-bay-rebounds-with-exceptional-vintage-after-cyclone-gabrielle/feed/ 0 Sandra Hazlehurst, mayor of Hastings, New Zealand, tells db about the intensive two-year clean-up the region has undergone following Cyclone Gabrielle, and how Hawke's Bay is looking at its brightest future yet.  In February 2023 Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's North Island with force, causing billions of dollars worth of damage and wreaking havoc on vineyards in Hawke's Bay. Two years on from the devastating event, db speaks to Hastings District Council mayor Sandra Hazlehurst about how the region is recovering. “Cyclone Gabrielle hit us hard," she says. "We pretty much haven’t looked up since it happened. More than NZ$1.2 billion dollars worth of damage was done to our region, so we’ve spent the last two years in full recovery.”

Silt and debris

The lion's share of this work involved clearing enormous amounts of silt and debris deposited on the region. “Masses of water came down... it was an all-out assault from the rivers,” says Hazlehurst. “All our trees and vineyards were neck-high in silt. Paddocks, fields and vineyards were absolutely decimated.” Clearing the silt alone cost Hastings around NZ$228 million, paid for by New Zealand’s central government. But Hazlehurst highlights a silver lining to the shock event. “We have these big storms periodically and it re-nourishes our plains," she says. "The general rule is that if the silt level is below the graft of the vine then the plant can be rescued, but if the silt sits above the graft then it’s done.” “While it’s been hard, we are nourished by the thought that we are producing some brilliant land in which to grow more great food and wine. Our GDP in Hawke's Bay is made up from the food and wine we grow here and export to the world, so rebuilding our economy relies on us being able to continue sending our exports.” All in all, the mayor estimates, "it will take us 7-10 years to recover and respond completely,” not least repairing more than 100 bridges that were destroyed or damaged.

'Best Chardonnay in the world'

Although last year's Hawke's Bay vintage was "very small", picking for Chardonnay began in earnest in mid-February 2025. "This year we will have an exceptional vintage," says Hazlehurst. "We grow the best Chardonnay in the world, not just in New Zealand." Phil Brodie, winemaker for renowned Hawke's Bay wine producer Te Mata, reveals that "we didn't make any 2023 Pinot Noirs" due to Cyclone Gabrielle, and its total harvest for all varieties in 2023 was "about 50% of a usual year". "We had a lot of rain at once, and lost power here for about 36 hours, which wasn't as bad as for some others who lost power for a week," explains Brodie. "The timing did have an effect on the early picks, and although the 2023 Pinots were looking lovely, within two days they’d just taken up too much water. Perhaps we could have made a rosé, but we’re not in the rosé market." However, Te Mata was fortunately still able to produce a 2023 vintage of its hero wine Coleraine. Often referred to as "New Zealand's first-growth", the NZ$160 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (80%) and Merlot (15%) with a touch (5%) of Cabernet Franc has "a 50-year cellaring window", according to Brodie. "I'm so, so proud of this wine, more than any other Coleraine," he says of the '23. "I can't speak highly enough of the viticultural team. The wine is a tribute to the detail and precision that everyone in the team gave."

Land of the sleeping giant

Hawkes's Bay, home to 106 wineries, sits within the district of Hastings, known as "the land of the sleeping giant". The 'giant' in question refers to Te Mata Peak, a towering hill in the region, which according to local Māori lore is home to the Māori chief Te Mata lying in eternal slumber. In May 2023, Hawke's Bay was recognised as one of the 'Great Wine Capitals' of the world. The region joins Verona, Bordeaux, Porto, Bilbao, Lausanne, Mainz Rheinhessen, Cape Town, San Francisco, Mendoza, Adelaide and Valparaiso as fellow Great Wine Capitals. You can read db's Big Interview with Catherine Leparmentier, head of Great Wine Capitals, here. Speaking of Hawke's Bay's admission into the global network of excellence, Sally Duncan, chair of Hawke's Bay Winegrowers, called it "an absolute honour." "Not only are we promoting Hawke's Bay wine, we’re also promoting New Zealand wine on a global stage," she added. "We had to prove our wine quality, our tourism, our education, but we did it." According to Duncan, there has been "a revitalisation" of Hawke's Bay, which is New Zealand's oldest wine region with vines first planted in 1851, since the announcement was made last year. Hawke's Bay grows a staggering 90% of New Zealand’s Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and specialises in premium Bordeaux blends, as well as Chardonnay (with 1,033ha planted to this white grape). The region also boasts the highest percentage of wineries credited by Sustainable Wine New Zealand.  ]]> ‘Tiny’ 2024 vintage may prompt longer-term stability for Burgundy https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/tiny-2024-vintage-may-prompt-longer-term-stability-for-burgundy/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/tiny-2024-vintage-may-prompt-longer-term-stability-for-burgundy/#respond Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:08:56 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=672145 Although demand for Burgundy has slipped in recent months with confidence at “historically low levels” and prices continuing to fall, a new report from Liv-ex claims there are signs of a “balancing out of sentiment” that will lead to greater stability on the fine wine market.  

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/tiny-2024-vintage-may-prompt-longer-term-stability-for-burgundy/feed/ 0 Despite demand for Burgundy slipping in recent months and confidence at “historically low levels” with prices continuing to fall, a new report from Liv-ex claims there are signs of a “balancing out of sentiment” that will lead to greater stability on the fine wine market.   Liv-ex’s Burgundy Market in 2025, which was published this week, noted that the Burgundy 150 index had fallen further than any other sub-index of the Fine Wine 1000, falling 30.2% over the last two years (even though it remained 16.6% higher over a five-year period). Similarly its market share had called from the 2022 peak of 26% back to 19.3% in the year to date, while its bid:offer ratio was lower than any other sub-index. However, within there were notable nuances worth picking out. For example, it noted a “definitive split” between the whites and reds’ performance, with the whites weathering the downturn better and remaining 4.4% above their January 2022 levels compared to red’s 21.4% fall over the same time period. This was largely due to red wine prices having “further to fall”, it said. Another promising sign was that transaction volumes had risen in 2024, up 6.4% on the same period last year, primarily on the back of regional Burgundy wines. This classification has seen a 33% rise in 2025, up from 6.6% the previous year, compared to a 9.3% fall in the volume premier Cru and 10.8% Grand Cru wines. Meanwhile the average trade value in the year to date was now 25.6% lower than it was for the same period last year. This suggested that the lower end Burgundy prices might be increasingly appealing to buyers. “With the average cost per litre having fallen 36% since 2022 for regional Burgundy, it would appear prices are now at level to entice buyers," it said.

2023 campaign

In terms of the 2023 releases, the “minuscule” 2024 vintage had provided important context for the campaign, as well as “the current and future direction of the Burgundy market”. It argued that with prices for the 2023 campaign remaining flat on the 2022, the reports of a "short-lived flurry at the start of the campaign followed by an abrupt drying up of demand", highlighted that the market had not reacted well.  However, it argued that the tiny crop may potentially benefit Burgundy in the longer-term as prices, and balance sheet pressure, would prompt market participants to "gritting their teeth and committing to clear out stock." "In Burgundy we are seeing this at the lower end. One would imagine that prices of the upper echelons will also reach a point that releases the floodgates," it said. "Early indications would suggest that as the 2023s trickle onto the secondary market, their prices will soften. The average offer of those already available is 11.4% below the ex-London release price. With the prospect of a minimal influx of 2024s to interrupt the clear out, it might well be that come the release of the 2025s, collectors will once again be ready to open their cellar doors".]]> Golden wonder: is the star of Sauternes losing its lustre? https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/golden-wonder-is-the-star-of-sauternes-losing-its-lustre/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/golden-wonder-is-the-star-of-sauternes-losing-its-lustre/#respond Mon, 03 Mar 2025 14:35:45 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=671953 There are sweet wines, and then there is Château d’Yquem. But, in a changing fine wine landscape, is the star of Sauternes losing its lustre? Arabella Mileham reports. 

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/golden-wonder-is-the-star-of-sauternes-losing-its-lustre/feed/ 0 There are sweet wines, and then there is Château d’Yquem. But, in a changing fine wine landscape, is the star of Sauternes losing its lustre? Arabella Mileham reports.  Chanel... Rolex... Dior. There are some names that are simply iconic – and Château d’Yquem is undoubtedly one of them. Beloved by Thomas Jefferson and said to be as fresh as ever after 100 years in bottle, few wines have captured the imagination in quite the same way. It even has a day named after it – D’Yquem Day falls on the third Thursday in March, when the previous vintage can be snapped up by its (well-heeled) fans. But, in an age of declining consumption of wine – particularly of sweet wines – what is demand for this landmark wine like? Has its long history and glowing reputation caused it to rest on its laurels, or can d’Yquem maintain its status in today’s market? The history of this famous estate in Sauternes is a well-trodden path. Once owned by the Dukes of Aquitaine and the Plantagenet Kings of England, it was reclaimed by the French crown in 1453, with feudal tenure of d’Yquem given to a local nobleman, Jacques Sauvage, in 1593. Although the family didn’t take full ownership for more than 100 years, it was during this time that the château itself was built, and the current vineyards were established, plot by plot. The estate flourished, surviving the destruction of the French Revolution thanks to the brilliant management of Françoise Joséphine de Sauvage, the ‘lady of d’Yquem’, whose marriage brought the estate into the Lur Saluces family (where it remained for over 200 years). Widowed only three years after her marriage, it was Françoise Joséphine who built a new wine cellar and perfected the idea of picking the grapes in several passes, steering the business and building the estate’s stratospheric reputation. Under her grandson, d’Yquem became the only Sauternes estate to be designated Premier Cru Supérieur in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. But, history aside, how influential and important does this iconic producer remain today?

Pantheon of greats

According to Marc Ditcham, fine wine broker at Corney & Barrow, in the world of sweet wine, Château d’Yquem still stands “head and shoulders” above all others. “In the wine trade we love to talk about upcoming producers, regions and trends – and, although this is true when it comes to still and sparkling wine, when it comes to sweet wine there are no real disrupters, be it heroes or threats,” he says. Its position among the pantheon of greats is “truly merited”, he argues, due “first and foremost [to] its sublime deliciousness; perfectly pitched in its youth, yet able to garner increasing superlatives the longer it spends in bottle”. Ditcham adds: “You don’t need to be a wine nerd or need technical instruction to be dazzled and charmed by its delectability.” And d’Yquem has flexed its reputation by consistently ranking towards the top of the Liv-ex Power 100, the annual ranking of fine wine brands that reflects trade on the global marketplace over the previous 12 months. In 2024, it was in fifth position, having dropped three rungs from second place in 2023. As Robbie Stevens, head of broking at Liv-ex, explains, a brand’s position reflects not only the number of transactions in a year, but also its year-on- year price performance, and the amount traded by volume and value. Given the longevity of d’Yquem vintages – and that it tends to be less volatile than many other Bordeaux brands – there are a high number of wines traded. “D’Yquem carried a higher price than any other Sauternes and, barring a few German wines and Tokajis, it is at the high price point, so it has a lot of things going for it,” Stevens points out. It also dominates the category. Bordeaux Index, for example, saw d’Yquem’s activity account for nearly 50% of white Bordeaux and over 90% of Sauternes/Barsac sales by value last year. Similarly, at French-based online auction house iDealwine, d’Yquem holds a unique position in Bordeaux sweet wine auctions, amounting to 15% of bottles sold (by volume) while representing 56% of 2024 auction sales, with an average price of €374– three times higher than the category’s observed average (€99). A bottle of d’Yquem 1945 was sold for €4,250, while the oldest bottled sold by iDealwine in 2024 dated back to 1914.

Challenging market

That being said, 2024 was not the most auspicious year for fine wine in general, and d’Yquem has not been immune. Matthew O’Connell CEO, LiveTrade, and head of investment at Bordeaux Index, explains that the company’s sales of d’Yquem fell 25% in 2024 compared with 2023, down 30% against the five-year average, something that reflects “a major contraction from the buoyant market of 2021 and 2022”. Similarly, Liv-ex’s Sauternes 50 index declined 6% in 2024, and fell 8% over a two-year period – although the longer five-year timespan showed a rise of 5%. “There is some stability there – people buy it and hold it, and the supply and demand only goes down when it reaches maturity and starts to be drunk,” Stevens explains. Prime vintages such as the 100-point trio of 2001, 2007 and 2009 represented the lion’s share of sales at Bordeaux Index, O’Connell says, collectively contributing 40% of total transactions, even though the price performance for those leading vintages has been “decidedly lacklustre”, with values for 2001 (described by Hedonism Wines’ website as “one of the greatest Sauternes ever made”) falling by 15% over the past two years, with the 2007 vintage declining by 5% over the same timespan. As a result, prices for these key vintages are now at levels comparable to five years ago, O’Connell says, having missed much of the broader market upswing seen between 2020 and 2022. But this is not peculiar to d’Yquem. Although the “near ubiquity” of d’Yquem limits the ability to draw meaningful conclusions about other Sauternes châteaux such as Rieussec or Suduiraut, “the overall trend of declining sweet wine sales appears consistent across major players,” O’Connell argues. Liv-ex’s Stevens argues that this reflects the difficult and “overstocked” secondary market, where wines have struggled for bids – and the challenge specific to dessert wines of consumption rates versus production rates and “whether they are in vogue or not”. After all, “they can take a hell of a long time to mature,” he points out. And this is something that Yquem’s new owner, luxury goods giant LVMH, has sought to address, both in the vineyard and through its marketing.

Evolution of its appeal

According to db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay, in recent years “d’Yquem, above all, has sought to make itself more accessible, including to the young and less crusty and aristocratic”. While there haven’t been any radical shifts in winemaking style or approach, there have been a series of subtle changes that all lead in this direction. “I think there is considerable emphasis on the health of the vineyard and the capacity to retain moisture in the soil and the freshness of the fruit,” Hay explains. There have been some changes in the blend, with the selection of grapes for the grand vin becoming even stricter “than it has ever been”, with more Sauvignon Blanc included in the blend in certain years to boost its acidity (45% in 2019, compared to only 20% the previous year). D’Yquem’s estate manager Lorenzo Pasquini has previously talked about the team’s progress in preserving and enhancing the expression of the primary fruit, which he said added “white peach, fresh apricot, white flowers and yellow Mirabelle plum aromas” to youthful d’Yquems, in addition to the familiar “orange peel, saffron and bergamot notes”. The use of oak has become even more subtle and delicate than before, Hay continues, with a reduction in the ageing period (the 2020 vintage, for example, was in oak for only 22 months, down from the 36 months of previous vintages) and less racking. As a result, the wines are “arguably less dense and concentrated, with the accent placed on levity, freshness and aromatic complexity”, Hay says. Overall, the approach is designed to produce a wine that is accessible immediately after it is bottled and in its youth – and this approach is being encouraged through LVMH’s Lighthouse Programme, a concept which sees d’Yquem available by the glass in a select range of nearly 40 venues around the world – including the NoMad Hotel, Annabel’s, the Portland Restaurant, and Berry Bros. & Rudd in London, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, Aira in Stockholm, Le Caprice in Hong Kong, Shanghai’s Villa le Bec, Michelin-starred Le Coucou in New York and Sushi Nakazawa in Greenwich Village, as well as Spago in Beverly Hills. “It is no longer a sin to drink Sauternes, including its greatest wine, d’Yquem, in its infancy,” Hay smiles. “While that might be heretical to some, I find it a breath of fresh air.”

Daily drinker

In the past, cases of d’Yquem used to be large and arguably more suited to the on- trade, which had the means and ability to a utilise a full case. However, nowadays, d’Yquem is starting to release smaller, more manageable size cases “in order to satisfy the demands of the daily drinker”, according to Corney & Barrow’s Ditcham. Private clients tend to buy en primeur, he adds, while “restaurants and private member clubs more often than not want bottles or half-bottles with age, and with a strong secondary market presence this can often be fulfilled,” he explains. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Stonehouse Restaurant at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California, which bought a 138-vintage vertical of d’Yquem last year, making it the restaurant with the largest collection of d’Yquem anywhere in the world – stocking every vintage from 1887 to 2008, as well as some historic bottles dating back to 1811. Asked to explain the acquisition, food and beverage director Andrew Caine explains that the château’s dedication to quality is unrivalled and is reflected in the Ranch’s own determination to curate an exceptional wine programme. “For the château, it’s not about getting d’Yquem in a bottle – it’s about ensuring what they are putting out there is worthy of the Yquem label,” he says. Like those in the Lighthouse Programme, the restaurant offers wines by the glass with a meal. Younger vintages of d’Yquem are available by the glass for around US$105-$125, while older, rare vintages can climb to US$500 a glass. Guests also have the opportunity to compare both younger and more mature vintages in an “immersive tasting experience” of four curated wines, as as well as order whole bottles of d’Yquem if desired. “The idea is to break the notion that d’Yquem has to be kept for decades and decades, and drink it 30 to 40 years down the line,” he explains. “We’re seeing tremendous success, and I think it’s a really fun way to break the traditional role of wine pairing. We can pair it with cheese, maybe with lobster or shellfish, and it’s a fun way to show guests that d’Yquem and Sauternes in general is more than just a dessert wine – it can be enjoyed in its youth.” Guests are still quite surprised when a d’Yquem is recommended for a second course or even a main course, Caine notes. “Typically, they think dessert wines aren’t for them, but you tell them about Yquem and all of a sudden it’s magic in a glass,” he says. “It’s a wine we can introduce to people and, 10 out of 10 times, guests are beyond happy.” Caine believes the initiative has proven to be a great way to showcase both the wine in its youth, as well as its versatility. “We’re seeing everyone from wine connoisseurs and aficionados to novices that are intrigued by the history of d’Yquem and by the pairings and the collection that we have,” he adds.

Landmark vintages

There is clearly a market for the landmark vintages from the late 1980s and early 1990s. “The trilogy vintages are very popular: the ’88, ’89 and ’90 were revered for being some of the most unique expressions of the terroir,” says Caine. San Ysidro Ranch is also opening bottles as old as 1967 and 1959, he says, while at the other end of the spectrum, the wines from the mid-2000s are also proving popular. “We’re seeing a lot of 2011 bought, as well as the 2014s and the ’08 – another legendary vintage, so it’s shifting more towards the ‘younger’ vintages,” he says. As Hay argues: “When one considers that, when the Lighthouse project was first launched, many saw d’Yquem as being threatened more than perhaps any other classed growth superstar by the then pervasive market trends, there is a lot in d’Yquem’s strategy that other leading estates can learn from in difficult market conditions. “It is seeking to cultivate covetability, but without being overly reliant on its history and heritage".]]> ‘Less is more’: the Brunello secrets of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/less-is-more-the-brunello-secrets-of-ciacci-piccolomini-daragona/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/less-is-more-the-brunello-secrets-of-ciacci-piccolomini-daragona/#respond Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:40:54 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=671123 By rights, the location of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona in the sultry southeast of the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG should make it especially vulnerable to the impact of climate change. And yet this family-owned winery continues to release wines full of elegance and precision. Richard Woodard finds out how.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/less-is-more-the-brunello-secrets-of-ciacci-piccolomini-daragona/feed/ 0 By rights, the location of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona in the sultry southeast of the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG should make it especially vulnerable to the impact of climate change. And yet this family-owned winery continues to release wines full of elegance and precision. Richard Woodard finds out how. So far and so rapidly has the star of Brunello di Montalcino risen in the wine universe that it’s easy to forget that, until relatively recently, this was a poor area populated by subsistence farmers who sold off their grapes or made simple wines for their own consumption. “Until 50 or 60 years ago, there were only 25 wineries in Montalcino. Now there are over 250,” says Alex Bianchini, winemaker at Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona, the Brunello estate owned by his father Paolo and his aunt Lucia. “I get this from my grandmother [Anna], because she tells me every day we have to remember that, 50 years ago, there was only potatoes, onions and rice for lunch. There has been a big development since then.” Wine is but a recent chapter in the estate’s history, which can be traced back to the 17th century, including a palazzo built by Fabivs de’ Vecchis, Bishop of Montalcino. The tongue-twisting name is a consequence of the marriage between Count Alberto Piccolomini d’Aragona (a descendant of Pope Pius II) and Elda Ciacci, the Ciaccis having bought the estate in 1877. When Countess Elda Ciacci died in 1985, she left the property to her farm manager, Giuseppe Bianchini, who had long wanted to make wine commercially. He had planted the first vineyards in 1983 and, in 1985, released the estate’s maiden wines: 20,000 bottles of Brunello and 5,000 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino. Since then, production has risen to about 300,000 bottles a year – there is a Syrah, Fabivs, and a Merlot/Cabernet blend, Ateo, but Sangiovese is the dominant focus here, producing a pair of Rosso di Montalcinos (including Rossofonte, from older vines), a classic estate Brunello, and a pair of wines from the Pianrosso vineyard, including a Riserva only made in the best years. Wine may have come relatively late to the story of this estate, but already there’s a feeling of continuity and consistency to the way in which the wines are made – possibly a consequence of family ownership. As Alex Bianchini helps his father Paolo with production, his aunt Lucia runs the administration and accounting, and his sister Ester handles sales, marketing and PR. “We are a family business, so we do more or less everything,” Bianchini says. Much has changed, but the galestro soils of the Pianrosso vineyard, which Giuseppe Bianchini started planting back in 1985, have long been the source of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona’s finest wines. “Pianrosso means ‘red soil’,” explains Bianchini. “These soils are really rich in iron and minerals thanks to the old volcano [Monte Amiata, to the south-east].” However impressive the galestro soils may be, there is one inescapable fact about the Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona estate – in fact, it’s the first aspect that Alex Bianchini mentions when we meet: “We are the hottest area in Montalcino.” Throw in the inescapable impact of climate change and you’d expect the wines to be baked, super-rich and, well, just plain excessive. But they’re not. Alex ticks off a list of beneficial factors: vineyards – certified organic since 2018 – planted at an elevation of 240m to 360m above sea level; the relatively proximity of the sea; the protection of Monte Amiata. “Perhaps during July and August it’s very hot, but we get good temperature variation,” he says. “It might be 15-18C in the evening, and 30-32C in the day. This is the perfect way to ripen the grapes in terms of aromas and colour. We have a very special microclimate.” Those galestro soils conceal a few secrets too. Drill down and you hit clay – crucial in terms of water retention after winter or spring rains. “Two or three months without water is not a big problem,” says Bianchini. “Only two times in the last 25 years we had a problem with dry conditions, in 2003 and 2017. This was a problem for the young vineyards, because their roots don’t go as far down.” The vineyards are located close to the Orcia river, which also helps to leaven the effects of the hot, dry months, bringing cooler evenings, although conversely it can be a problem if there’s a lot of rain in June and July. Bianchini cites 2014 as an example of this – so wet that no Pianrosso or Riserva was made. There’s some human intervention too. The Bianchinis plant mustard and other cover crops, then press them down into the soil – a “green manure” which Alex says can create a 2-3C temperature difference – crucial when the mercury climbs into the mid-30s at the height of summer. “The harvest time is the other secret,” he says. “Consider that, 20-25 years ago, we harvested at the beginning of October, or maybe 25 September. Now we are checking the grapes at the end of August, and sometimes the harvest can start in the first two weeks of September.” In that context, 2024 was a throwback, with picking starting on 27 September, and finishing on 23 October. “A lot of people older than me say this is like a harvest from the 1990s or 1980s,” Bianchini notes. “In the last 15 years, every year is completely different, but mainly for the harvest time: today is earlier; tomorrow could be later.” Attention is now focused on the 2020 and 2019 vintages, with Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona about to release its classic Brunello and Pianrosso 2020, plus the Riserva from 2019 – or, to give it its full title, Brunello di Montalcino Vigna de Pianrosso Riserva Santa Caterina d’Oro. The name is a tribute to Giuseppe Bianchini, who died in 2004 (just before the completion of the estate’s new winery), and who was three times garlanded as winemaker of the year in Siena’s Santa Caterina d’Oro awards. The two vintages have some similarities – picking dates, general weather patterns – but 2020’s July heat has made its wines a little softer and more generous now, while 2019 displays more structure and tannic backbone. Both have plenty to recommend them, but you’d imagine most people might drink the 2020s while they wait for the 2019s to reach their peak. Not that you can be entirely sure of how a vintage will evolve. As the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG abandons its star rating for vintages – a blunt tool at the best of times, replaced by a much more detailed and nuanced assessment of conditions – some perhaps overlooked years are getting a second chance. “When the 2013s came out, people thought they were green, with a lot of tannin,” says Bianchini. “There was lots of rain during the year. It was hotter in August, but still only 28-30C, so not that hot. Today, when you open a 2013, you can find a perfect expression of Brunello for me, and a lot of my colleagues say the same thing – but people thought it would not be perfect for long ageing.” If there’s one more secret to be unlocked about Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona, it’s the estate’s laser focus on tradition in terms of ageing. That means large-format Slavonian oak, and adherence to the “old regulations”: three years in wood for the classic Brunello and Pianrosso; three-and-a-half years for the Riserva. “We only use big barrels for Sangiovese,” says Bianchini. “Brunello was born in big barrels, with Biondi-Santi.” The classic Brunello spends seven to eight months in bottle before release (the mandatory minimum is four); the Riserva more than 18 months. The approach is perhaps best summed up in the management of the four plots that make up the Pianrosso vineyard, totalling 11 hectares. When the decision is made, during harvest, to try to make a Riserva, the grapes are picked for the Brunello Pianrosso wine, but one bunch per vine is left behind to ripen further for another week, concentrating the flavours. The yields from the Pianrosso plots are eyewateringly low at the best of times – about 5,000kg/ha, versus closer to 7,000kg/ha for the rest of the estate. “We prefer to stay lower than the minimum, because we prefer to focus on the quality,” says Bianchini. “Less is more… in the wine world, very often, less is more.” The wines of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona are represented in the UK by Mentzendorff. The estate’s Brunello di Montalcino 2020 (RSP £51 per bottle), Pianrosso 2020 (£68) and Vigna di Pianrosso Riserva Santa Caterina d’Oro 2019 (£125), are scheduled to arrive in the UK in April 2025.]]> Stars of the hors Bordeaux 2025 Spring collection https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/stars-of-the-hors-bordeaux-2025-spring-collection/ https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/stars-of-the-hors-bordeaux-2025-spring-collection/#respond Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:00:09 +0000 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/?p=671835 On the eve of the spring 2025 edition of la place’s hors Bordeaux campaign, db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay assesses the prospects for these iconic wines set to be released in market conditions that remain as difficult as they have been in over a decade.

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]]> https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/03/stars-of-the-hors-bordeaux-2025-spring-collection/feed/ 0 On the eve of the spring 2025 edition of la place’s hors Bordeaux campaign, db's Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay assesses the prospects for these iconic wines set to be released in market conditions that remain as difficult as they have been in over a decade. There is no way around the brutal fact that market conditions remains extraordinarily complex, nor the likely implications of that for the spring campaign (and, indeed, for the en primeur campaign that will follow on shortly afterwards). Even if, to date, La Place has proved more resilient to this profound market readjustment than many assumed it would be, it is far from out of the woods. And whilst it remains in the woods it is likely to remain extremely conservative in the positions it takes on new releases, whether from Bordeaux (en primeur) or beyond (hors Bordeaux).

La place’s new economic realism

But that is news to no-one; and that it is news to no-one is a bit of a game changer. For that was not the case this time last year. What it changes is that we are now in a phase of at least relative transparency characterised by a new and increasingly shared sense of economic realism. Properties bringing wines to la place this spring cannot continue to pretend, as some of them certainly did last year, that conditions – at least from their perspective – were, if not favourable, then tolerable and continuity was the best course of action. That is simply not how the conversation goes today. So what does this new economic realism look like and what are the brutal facts that it has absorbed? Let’s start with the good news, even if it is unlikely to detain us for long. There have been few if any outright casualties on la place, certainly for now. Indeed, essentially all of the estates who released wines on la place in the Spring campaign of 2024 remain on la place today. Some, to be fair, have either moved their releases to the autumn or consolidated what was a split-offer into a single autumn release. Amongst those that will not release this spring for that reason are Penfolds, VIK, Stag’s Leap and L’Aventure. But these should be seen as purely logistical choices. They tell us little or nothing about how what they have already released has fared. Rather more significantly, a number of properties are still licking their wounds after a difficult year on la place. They will in all likelihood re-assess the situation when spring has turned to summer and it is not inconceivable that some of them will choose to withdraw from la place and revert to more traditional distribution models. But we are not there yet. That notwithstanding, the reality is that la place remains better at commercialising wines that have already acquired a global reputation than it is at commercialising those whose reputation is still rising and whose potential remains to be fully realised. That needs to change and it may just be starting to change. We will see.

La place’s ‘new normal’

That things could well have been worse is, of course, in a way a good thing. But there is no disguising the fact that the days are long since gone when the new hors Bordeaux releases sold through in hours with négociants fighting between themselves to increase the size of their allocations. Today’s ‘new normal’ on la place is rather different. Négociant pools that were once very small have been growing. Indeed, we will see a few re-releases of wines on la place this March which are designed simply to provide additional volumes of a wine to the new members of an enlarged négociant pool. This is just one symptom of the wider condition. The underlying problem, as fine wine market analysts have been arguing for 18 months at least, is lack of demand and the market’s new found aversion to young wines in particular. True, the hors Bordeaux market is not a primeurs market. All of the new releases are at least in bottle and, as my tasting notes below attest, such is the quality of the wines on offer that they are almost all approachable now. That even goes for the Barolo Riservas, the Brunello Riservas and the Napa releases – in short, for wines that will age for at least 50 years without any difficulty and which we used to think of as completely inaccessible and impenetrable in their youth. That was then … But that is not really the relevant point here. For however accessible these wines may now have become in their infancy, they come from the most recent available vintage. That is the problem. For in a context in which the market is, and has been for some time, awash with the discounted accumulated backstock of previous releases the demand for any new release is supressed.

Expectations for the spring campaign

But that too is common knowledge to all market participants. So how might they react? What should we expect from the spring campaign? The first thing to note here is that, if last year much of the hors Bordeaux market was still in denial about the gravity of the prevailing market situation, that is no longer the case. And that leads me to anticipate at minimum modest reductions in price relative to last year for many of these wines. But why only modest reductions? Surely that will not be enough? And if that is true, obvious even, then doesn’t it question my claim to have identified a new spirit of market realism in and around la place today? The answers to these questions are linked – if just a little complicated. In the best-case scenario (and putting to one side for now the introduction of US tariffs on European exports) it is just about credible to think that the market has already reached it floor. By implication, it is already recovering. But it is certainly not doing so at any great pace. And for as long as it continues to flat-line, we know that it is likely to be characterised by a generalised lack of demand for new releases of young vintages. In such market conditions the ‘clearing price’ for these wines (the price that would guarantee that all of a given release would sell through) is very low indeed and properties, in my view, will not go looking for it. They will, instead, try to find a certain kind of ‘sweet spot’ – a price that interests and mobilises that demand which does exist but which doesn’t threaten to reduce further already supressed secondary market prices for equivalent earlier releases. Judging that price is not easy (though it is not difficult to see that it is some way below last year’s equivalent release price). But many properties, I fear, will be rather too conservative in their spring campaign pricing. Here a second factor comes into the reckoning. A high proportion of the spring releases comes from Italy and the US (roughly 60% in fact). These markets are significantly different from the market for Bordeaux. For a much higher proportion of total sales is domestically-driven (and, for Italy, a significant proportion of those sales which are not are to the US alone). The point is that the domestic market for these wines (in both cases) and the US export market for Italian wines both remain rather stronger than the non-domestic markets for these wines. Yet it is invariably only for these latter markets that la place de Bordeaux controls the distribution. That, in a nutshell is the problem. For Italian and US producers are unlikely to wish to set a global price for their wines sufficiently low to reignite global demand when a rather less generous release price might be sufficient to ensure domestic and US sales (even if the latter are now challenged by tariffs). The implication is that we are likely to see smaller releases of these wines on la place rather than the kinds of price reductions that might be required to resuscitate global (above all Asian and European) demand. That is not good news for the négociants and the courtiers of la place.

New entrants

All of that said, the difficult economic context has not dissuaded a number of la place regulars bringing new wines to their spring offering (notably the first ever vintage of Borgogno’s fabulous Barolo Annunziata Riserva and Champagne Lanson’s first release of library stock of their exquisite Cuvée Noble). Nor has it prevented the arrival on la place for the first time of a rather unique and very different Champagne from the southern limits of the region in the Côte de Bar, Alexandre Bonnet’s tiny cuvée La Fôret. We also see the first releases of an exclusivity of the leading négociant, Joanne, with two Mercurey cuvées from Domaine Raquillet. Overall, I have tasted, reviewed and rated some 78 wines, with a number of additional wines either still wending their way to Paris as I type or not available for tasting at all given the miniscule quantity and legendary status of the proposed release. Amongst the many stars in this staggering line-up are the following:  Star releases: Value Picks: See here for tasting notes for the new releases by region: Italy, France, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, the USA and China]]>