It was hardly a closely guarded secret that the La Place autumn campaign was likely to prove one of attrition – and so it has proved. But the exceptions to that rule offer an insight into how La Place can be made to work by dynamic properties even in the most adverse of market conditions. Colin Hay reports. One such exception is Bibi Graetz, who has shared some of its autumn collection sales data with db, and the strategy underpinning the figures. Taken together they paint an intriguing picture. Graetz released his new vintages of Testamatta and Colore (the 2022 vintage for the reds, the 2023 vintage for the whites) through La Place de Bordeaux on 12 September. Within a couple of weeks of the release, 95% had already sold through and all four of these wines are now essentially unavailable to those who have not already secured an allocation. According to Vincenzo d’Andrea, Bibi Graetz’s commercial director (and right hand man), three factors are crucial to this success: the relatively small size of the release (with a drop in production of around 55% in total volume), the high quality of the wines themselves (Colore, for instance, secured 100 points from James Suckling, 97 points from Jane Anson and 98 points in my own evaluation) and, no less significantly, consistency and competitiveness in pricing. As Alessandro Pagani, fine wine buyer at ARVI, points out, despite it being one of the most challenging September releases of the past decade, Graetz
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Fine Wine
