Bordeaux Index affirms Burgundy commitment

Bordeaux Index is looking to “dispel the myth” that it only deals in Bordeaux with an updated and more in-depth Burgundy offering.

Despite its name and reputation, sales director Sam Gleave explained that the development of the Burgundy range was a continuation of the broker’s previous work, but with more direct sourcing and logistical and marketing support for consultant Philip Slocombe.

Speaking to the drinks business, he explained that the investment would allow for “greater range in terms of variety and volume of those existing directly imported domaines, as well as up-and-coming growers such as Jean Tardy, Harmand Geoffroy, Laurent Roumier and Paul Pernot.”

Gleave continued that BI had always tried to keep its Burgundy selection on a par with that of Bordeaux but it had usually only stretched as far as buying wines from private cellars or on the secondary market.

The new emphasis will mean much more direct buying from both well established, famous names and up-and-coming producers.

With regards to Burgundy’s potential in the Far East, where several recent auctions have seen top Burgundies sell very well to Asian buyers, Gleave added: “The mainland Chinese are still mainly only buying brands such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

"The likes of Rousseau and Méo-Camuzet are becoming popular but all I would do is to try to compare where the Burgundy market in China is now to where it was in Japan at the beginning of the ’90s.

“At this time Japan was also only focusing on first growths but within five to seven years they had become the second largest importer of Burgundy after the US.

“Providing a small percentage of Chinese buyers start to consume Burgundy in volume then it may start to pressurise stocks as production is low but as an investment, apart from the top names, I still wouldn’t recommend something like Vosne-Romanée les Suchots from Grivot as a hot ticket.”

Rupert Millar, 11.11.2010