Bordeaux Braces Itself For A heav Weekend Of Drinking

Giant bottles in Bordeaux decorate the town to celebrate The Bordeaux Wine Fair Photo: AFP

Bordeaux Braces Itself For 'Le Binge Drinking' -- The Telegraph

Bordeaux's bi-annual wine festival is bracing itself for the British curse of "le binge drinking" with frogmen on standby to rescue drunken revellers from its Garonne River.

Since Thursday, France's wine capital has been celebrating the eighth edition of the festival along a 1.2-mile "wine road" on the banks of the Garonne. Around 500,000 are expected to turn up by Sunday to taste 80 appellations from Bordeaux and Aquitaine and attend nightly concerts and firework displays.

This year, however, authorities have taken extra, draconian security steps after a spate of alcohol-related drownings in the river running through its centre.

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My Comment: Wish I was there.

Bordeaux 2011 Prices Cut As Much As 45%

Bordeaux 2011 Prices Cut As Much As 45% as Lafite Demand Cools -- SFGate/Bloomberg

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Top Bordeaux 2011 wines including Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Cos d'Estournel are selling for between 30 percent and 45 percent below recent vintages after investment demand for the exceptional 2009s and 2010s sapped buyers' appetite for less-powerful new clarets.

First-growth Lafite is being quoted at $8,410 a case on London-based wine exchange Liv-ex, 41 percent below 2010 and 45 percent down from the 2009s. Second-growth Cos d'Estournel, its close neighbor, is at $1,680 a case for the latest vintage, 45 percent down from the 2010s and 62 percent below 2009.

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My Comment: It looks like some sanity is returning to the market.

First Indications Of The Bordeaux 2011 Vintage

Bordeaux, the world's largest fine wine region has just released its 2011 vintage. This follows two spectacular vintages in 2009 and 2010, which saw prices rise by as much 50% for some châteaux. WSJ's Will Lyons has been tasting the latest wines.

Bordeaux 2011: Choose Carefully -- Wall Street Journal

They can build the most sophisticated, technologically advanced wineries in the world, match them with immaculate, temperate cellars, and employ the most talented winemakers of a generation. But behind the neoclassical facades of Bordeaux's spectacular châteaux, the Bordelais understand that however much attention to detail they lavish on their vines, they cannot control mother nature.

The region's very best wines may command thousands of pounds a bottle, morphing into international brands and commodities to be traded in countless investment portfolios, but unlike fabricating a Hermès handbag or the latest McLaren supercar, if the weather conditions conspire to affect the growing season, there is only so much one can do to save the quality of the wine.

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My Comment: It looks like the Bordeaux 2011 is going to be a hit and miss proposition.

Bordeaux Wine Region Releases 2011 Vintage

Bordeaux, the world's largest fine wine region has just released its 2011 vintage. This follows two spectacular vintages in 2009 and 2010, which saw prices rise by as much 50% for some châteaux. WSJ's Will Lyons has been tasting the latest wines.

Is Bordeaux Wine Worth The Price?

Bordeaux Wine: Is It Worth The Money? -- The Telegraph

With the 2011 vintage decidedly average, and a grand name questioning the system, what is happening in Bordeaux?

This year, I learnt two new words while tasting in Bordeaux. The first was cramé (singed) which I picked up at Château Haut-Brion, where they were sighing over last June’s four-day heatwave – temperatures reached 40C (104F) and they lost 30 per cent of their cabernet sauvignon crop to sunburn. The second was échaudage, a more polite way of saying the same thing.

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My Comment: I agree with the last line in this article ....

.... Wine is like houses. Buy to drink, or for the sheer hell of it, not to invest, and you won’t be cramé.

Indeed.

Bordeaux Looking For Chinese Investors

Chateaus in Bordeaux, the world's top wine-producing region, hope to attract more Chinese investors.

Bordeaux Looks To China Amid Slump -- China Daily

French winemakers in Bordeaux, the world's top wine-producing region, are vying for more Chinese investors, said a senior official with the region's chamber of commerce.

"Their investment will create a win-win situation since many chateaus are currently experiencing sluggish business and an ever-shrinking market," said Pierre Goguet, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bordeaux, during a promotional event for the China Dalian International Wine & Dine Festival, which is set to open on July 12.

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My Comment: My advice to a Chinese investor .... invest only if you love wine .... not because you want to make money.

Will Bordeaux Wine Prices Drop?

"Some wines will have to be half what they were in 2010". Irish Times

Bordeaux Châteaus Say They'll Lower Prices, But How Much? -- Wine Spectator

After Americans passed on the 2010s, the first-growths are hinting that they'll drop prices substantially.

Wine professionals from around the world have descended upon Bordeaux for the annual tastings of the new vintage. This is Bordeaux’s moment to dazzle, with Michelin-starred chefs cooking for hundreds, jazz concerts, art exhibits—and thousands of barrels of wine looking for buyers. But price seems to be the topic on everyone's mind.

Wine Spectator Senior Editor James Molesworth's 2011 Bordeaux barrel tastings have shown a vintage of mixed quality. Two things make a price reduction within the realm of possibility: lukewarm Chinese interest and a vintage that doesn’t incite wild speculation. “Logically, the prices should come down, and that would allow Europeans and Americans to come back to the market,” said broker Max de Lestapis. And the top châteaus have already begun to tell people that they will release the wines at much lower prices than last year. How low? They're not saying yet.

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Update: Wine buyers warn prices must fall as Bordeaux fails to tickle palates -- Irish Times

My Comment: I would love to see these prices drop appreciably .... but I doubt it.

A Look At Bordeaux

Bordeaux: A City Uncorked -- The Guardian

Twenty years after she first visited the city, Natasha Edwards returns to Bordeaux and discovers a metropolis transformed. Wine still infuses its every nook and cranny, but a revitalised riverside has injected life back into the city centre.

As the tram glides along the riverside, it stops for a moment by the "mirror", the flat pool of water on the broad quayside. Sometimes fountain jets are turned on and children dash between them. With these switched off, the water perfectly reflects the beautiful semicircular Place de la Bourse, designed in the 1730s by the royal architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel. I can't help thinking the city is, quite rightly, admiring itself.

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My Comment: An excellent description of Bordeaux

Robert Paker Loves The 2009 Bordeauxs

Wine, Etc.: Buying Bordeaux Doesn't Have To Be Costly -- Home Town Annapolis

Call a particular year in Bordeaux “the vintage of the century” and you are likely to be dismissed with ridicule. Used so often by producers eager to unload their wines, the phrase has lost its meaning even for spectacular vintages like 1982.

However, calling the 2009 vintage in Bordeaux “the vintage of the century” is not getting the same response. It’s looking pretty good. Of course, the century is still young, so who knows what better vintages await us?

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My Comment: What caught my eye in this post was the following ....

.... One a scale of 1 to 100, Parker rated 18 wines between 98 and 100 — a tally we haven’t seen for many years.

Impressive.