By Rick Riozza
For all of you wine enthusiast Francophiles out there, we thought we’d give you some l’amour and provide a French title to pronounce. Sure it’s fun and games for this side of the pond, but on the other side, the news is not so good. Indeed: it’s a crève-coeur (KREHV-kuor)--a heartbreak happening in the Bordeaux wine region of France.
Yes—we are told that Bordeaux’s wine industry is facing an existential crisis, and it’s not merely about money. “Family legacies—vineyards that survived phylloxera, world wars and countless difficult vintages—are disappearing because the fundamental economics of Bordeaux wine have collapsed”, writes free-lance writer Paige Donner, who is based in Paris and is serving as our “far-flung correspondent”.
Donner continues: “While the top classified growths of Bordeaux get much of the attention—and are facing their own struggles, thanks to slumping sales and a futures system that appears broken—Bordeaux is France’s largest fine wine region, with thousands of vignerons farming more than 250,000 acres of vines.”
We are told by many Bordelais that “For a vigneron (winemaker) to see their property sold at auction is the end of a life’s work, sometimes the result of several generations’ life’s work on the property.”
Donner continues: “Life is changing rapidly for those vignerons, thanks to a perfect storm of weakening exports and fundamental changes at home. “The scene at an auction house in Bordeaux’s Blaye region last November crystallized a crisis decades in the making: 90,000 cases of organic Blaye wine, the inventory of a winery that had fallen into bankruptcy, was sold for just one-fourth the usual value—from $80 a case to just $25 a case.
“That night, vigilantes responded by opening the spigots on tanks containing thousands of cases for similar lots, letting the wine run into the gutters rather than see someone buy it and flood the market with cheap wine, dragging prices even lower.
“It’s a crève-cœur, a heartbreak,” said Jacques Chardat of Corlianges, a négociant distributing wines from 20 châteaus in Blaye and Bourg, which lie just across the Gironde river from the Médoc.
If you are at all interested in European wine economics—you’ll continue reading. If not, check out a couple really good red Bordeaux buys, at the end of this piece.
In 2015, Bordeaux produced 555 million cases of wine and sold 610 million. For you folks who kept up with the new, that next year, the bottom fell out. Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s crushed demand in what had become Bordeaux’s most important export market. Exports plummeted from 72 million cases to under 22 million in just a few years. The pandemic then shuttered restaurants and halted wine tourism.
Donner writes: “But the problems run even deeper and closer to home. Modern Bordeaux was built on French wine consumption. But French domestic wine consumption has fallen from well over 333 million cases per year a few decades ago to around 220 to 270 million cases today. And per-capita annual consumption has dropped from about 11 cases to around 3 to 5.5 cases per person! That sounds like American consumption numbers!
“Bulk red Bordeaux, the wine the French have always bought from their supermarkets, has lost one-third of its value since 2018. It is reported that approximately 1,200 properties, nearly 25 percent of Bordeaux’s remaining 4,000 estates, are in serious debt restructuring negotiations. Many growers are holding four unsold vintages in inventory, representing millions of euros in invested capital with no revenue stream.
“Running a 120-acre estate costs over one and a half million euros per year in cash—for tractors, inputs & bottling—and many winemakers have nothing coming in.”
In response, French and European Union authorities have revived a vine removal program to uproot 72,000 to 81,600 acres nationwide. The subsidy pays 4,000 euros per acre are, potentially rising to 10,000 euros in the most vulnerable zones like Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Vines must be permanently removed by June 2026. No replanting is allowed for at least six years.
“The proposed $4,000 per acre is too low to cover costs,” winemakers argue. More fundamentally, partial vine removal actually raises per-bottle production costs without solving overproduction, by having farmers work less land per estate. Long-time winemakers conclude that it would be better to encourage older farmers to fully retire, uprooting their entire estates.
“For vignerons drowning in debt, this represents a lifeline, or at least a dignified exit, but it has become a grim necessity. “It’s a structural crisis that’s going to eliminate many vignerons, unfortunately,” he said. “For those who survive, they’ll need to adapt, seek new trends, group together to better sell for export.
“For now, Bordeaux’s vignerons face an impossible choice. They can either take the uprooting money and exit with some dignity, or hold on through the valley of shadows and hope the market turns before the banks foreclose. Either way, the region they rebuild will look profoundly different from the one their grandparents knew.”
Tough Situation for certain! However here are a couple of classic red Bordeaux brands that are bringing the taste & wonder in view of the above news:
2023 Château Talbot St. Julien ($65). Generous and stylish, with mouthwatering apple wood flavors alongside mulled boysenberry, blueberry and blackberry compote. Flashes of dried anise and cast iron. It’s a blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Petite Verdot.
If you haven’t had a delicious Bordeaux lately—give yourself a treat!
2023 Château Fombrauge St. Emilion ($35). A mix of mulled red and black current fruit with black tea, singed anise and warm earth hints through the finish. A blend of Merlot and Cab Franc—a classic combo from Bordeaux’s Right Bank. A great buy!
As they say in French À la tienne! À la notre! À votre santé!—Cheers!
