Bordeaux en primeur: will a ‘35% reduction to recalibrate’ be enough?

In the second part of db’s analysis of the upcoming en primeur campaign, db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay’s ponders how we got to this point, and asks whether a 35% reduction in price will be enough to recalibrate en primeur? In the first half of our analysis of the crisis facing the Bordeaux 2023 en primeur campaign, I listed the facts of what is at stake for Bordeaux this year. Here, I slightly veer into the hypothetical to illustrate how we got to this point – and also the ways in which Bordeaux can respond to potentially save en primeur. How did we get here? Consider the (alas) purely hypothetical case of Château Punchbowl-Lynchmob, an oft-forgotten third growth from the Moyen-Médoc appellation. Their 2022 was excellent and much appreciated by the critics. The négociants purchased it but moaned about the release price, threatening (not for the first time) that this was the very last time they were going to take their allocation of a wine they did not expect to sell through. They took their allocation but only through gritted teeth and their fears were realised. A year on, they have sold just 10% of what they bought. Let’s imagine, now, the situation of one of these négociants, the no less hypothetical, Toutacheté Toutvendu (TATV). Their allocation was of 1,000 cases of 12 bottles for which they paid the standard ex. château release price of €600 per case. And let’s assume, that the interest rate of the loan they