Best of Bordeaux. Rolf Bichsel

a rewarding enterprise – to a varying extent. Over the past hundred years,

       the average value created by actual winemaking (including on top estates) has

       been a meagre five to eight per cent. Grand Crus are monuments of wine his-

      tory, so everything looks better if we examine the ‘valeur vénale', or estate value,

       which (depending on the time of the purchase) can increase by up to 1,000%

       not including investment, sometimes causing inheritance taxes to rocket and

       also creating high levels of debt if inheritances are divided up. However, for

       those who bought and sold at the wrong time it can also mean a -50% loss.

       Nevertheless, if considered over the past twenty years, the top estates are true

       treasure troves. Translated into bottle terms, no one in Bordeaux can produce

       wines for less than 1.5 euros per bottle, and top quality for less than 5 euros is

       an illusion. However, nowhere do production costs rise much above 20 euros,

       which allows fortunate producers to gild many taps, employ many gardeners,

       dig many pools, sponsor many artists and much more: in terms of the prices cur-

      rently being applied (and depending on their level of debt, as mentioned above),

       in good years this means profits of 50% or more. But remember, this only ap-

      plies to the top 20 or 30 most famous estates – wineries in the 40th to 500th

       positions have similarly high production costs but invest considerably more in

       marketing and sales whilst having to sell their wines at significantly reduced

       margins. As in most other high-quality wine regions, the widest range of per-

      fectly respectable wines in Bordeaux from a quality perspective can be found at

       between 20 and 40 euros. Depending on the expenditure incurred, profits in the

       red wine sector range from moderate to good, but can start plummet in a flash

       when loans take their toll, crisis looms on the global market and the tax authori-

      ties are at the door. The situation is equally fraught at the other end of the scale:

       the 500th to 1,000th positions are occupied by wines whose style has nothing

       in common with the Grand Crus but which are still called Bordeaux, and whose

       History The theatre of aging

       Barrels at Pédesclaux

       44

       History Profit calculations

       existence is therefore based on maintaining the pretence that they are similar to

       a Grand Cru but available for much less money.

       For Bordeaux simply suggests Grand Cru and implies a complicated, exces-

      sive, high-quality wine. Instead of unsuccessfully tagging along behind this idi-

      otic ideal, winemakers either side of the Grand Cru line (which is a world of its

       own) would be better off setting their minds to producing good, fresh, fun wines

       for cheerful consumption as an increasing number of winemakers are now do-

      ing – modern wines for everyone, rather than being forced to struggle between

       heaven and hell at the limit of profitability. If Tuscany can do it, then why can't

       Bordeaux – in the Côtes or Entre-Deux-Mers – do the same? Every month Gi-

      ronde winemakers throw in the towel, countless producers are surviving by

       the skin of their teeth, and average prices in Bordeaux are still no better than

       in Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône. Don't forget that Bordeaux floods the global

       market with around a billion (1,000,000,000) bottles of wine every year, more

       than 90% of which have nothing in common with Grand Crus, and the mere fact

       that some of this is described as Bordeaux Supérieur implies that there must be

       plenty of ‘Bordeaux Inférieur'!

       Thanks to the Internet, we now have the ability to compare the prices of

       world-famous brands in an instant. Online trade in Bordeaux is flourishing (and

       for the time being is not upsetting the traditional system, just traditional Bor-

      deaux merchants). Grands Crus are available via numerous channels, and the

       margins that an intermediary can make are on average relatively modest (un-

      less they go into cellaring and create added value from long aging). To this can

       be added competition from major (French) distributors who are increasingly

       seeking to circumvent the primeur-courtier-merchant system and use Grands

       Crus as lures. Special offers arrive in our mailboxes and the (executive) staff

       of Bordeaux Grands Crus are the first to run to the supermarket. Things look

       rather different at the other end of the scale, with rules that bring to mind the

       ills of the agricultural economy. Producers are receiving barely enough money

       to survive, sellers are trusting in the power of a recognisable name and fanning

       the flames of misunderstanding until they are blazing, slashing the margins of

       wines bought cheap which have to compete with Grands Crus, and once again

       wine enthusiasts are pulling chestnuts out of the fire and getting their fingers

       burnt on illusory bargains. And because the rest of the wine world grumbles

       about Bordeaux in public but emulates it in private, there are very few real al-

       ternatives.

       45

       The Bordeaux-makers History

       The Bordeaux makers

       Well, first there are the North Africans. Although they do not drink great Bor-

      deaux, they play a major role in producing it, for which they are paid a pittance.

       They are also Muslims, which poses no problems, as the Bordelais have always

       shared Old Fritz's view that everyone should be holy in their own way. Although

       Bordeaux has always been Catholic, it has successfully traded with Israelites,

       Protestants and Anglicans who had become the ultimate controllers of global

       trade, and its vines are now cultivated by Muslims, particularly in the historic

       left bank regions of Bordeaux, largely by (local) women. Despite the high unem-

      ployment rate, your average Frenchman does not want to get his hands dirty

       with