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The story of Almaviva part II: La Place and the market
Almaviva, the Chilean joint venture of Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Concha y Toro, was the first non-Bordeaux wine to be sold via La Place de Bordeaux. In the second instalment of a two-part interview, Rafael Guilisasti and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild discuss Almaviva’s La Place strategy with Richard Woodard – and re-emphasise the primacy of its château model.
It may be hard to believe today but, until relatively recently, La Place de Bordeaux – that vaunted, complex and far-reaching distribution system for fine wine – was solely concerned with selling the products of its home region. That fact only changed a little over 25 years ago, with the release in 1998 of Almaviva’s inaugural 1996 vintage.
In some respects, releasing Almaviva via La Place made perfect sense. After all, Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA, one half of the Chilean joint venture and owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, was very familiar with the system’s intricacies, benefits and shortcomings.
But the same could not be said for the other part of the Almaviva double act, Viña Concha y Toro. Nor had the Rothschilds pursued the same strategy with their other joint venture, Opus One (which only entered La Place from 2004). Rather like the creation of Almaviva in the first place, did opting for La Place require something of a leap of faith?
“When we suggested to Concha y Toro to distribute Almaviva on La Place, they could have said no,” points out Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, chairman and CEO of Baron Philippe de Rothschild. “But they trusted us, and they said: ‘Yes, go ahead, let’s do it that way.’ We knew what we were doing because we’ve known La Place for quite a long time, for obvious reasons, but it wasn’t obvious for Concha y Toro to agree immediately. And they agreed very quickly, saying: ‘Yes, it’s a good way of distributing this wine.’
“And it was a good way, because it was a way of making sure that there was going to be a real international distribution for Almaviva. Because La Place has its good sides and bad sides, but they do have a fantastic network … And it appears that it’s quite right today, because we do have a very balanced international distribution.”
Whispers at the time suggested that Almaviva got off to a slow start on La Place, struggling to gain attention as the sole Chilean wine amid the breadth and depth of the Bordeaux offer. And, initially, Almaviva was not exclusively sold on La Place anyway: some South American markets were served via traditional distribution channels.
But the virtue of being a pioneer, combined with the Rothschilds’ knowledge of the system, won through in the end. For Concha y Toro vice chairman Rafael Guilisasti, La Place works for Almaviva because of its network – that famed global reach – and because of its “nice nose to see where the new markets are”.
He continues: “Obviously, in the China boom or the days of the good China placement, it was very important to be in La Place de Bordeaux – it was impossible to do it the other way – and today we see new markets like Brazil, and the négociants are going there, so we are quite pleased with the distribution system.”
Sereys de Rothschild brushes aside suggestions that, over the past few years, the ‘hors Bordeaux’ element of La Place has become too congested, diluting its effectiveness. “There are many wines – I’m not going to say anything to the contrary, because they’ve multiplied the number of wines,” he says. “Very selfishly, I’m looking at mine. No, but what I’m saying is that, for the moment, the distribution of Almaviva has been going very well. They’ve really focused on it. What they do with the other brands on La Place de Bordeaux, you know, it’s their issue. I’m not going to do their job.”
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He may not want to do their job, but Sereys de Rothschild does emphasise the importance of working with négociants, rather than just delivering the bottles and expecting them to do the rest. Communication, tastings, inviting them to Almaviva to see the project in the flesh – he outlines a constant process of “maturing the link with the négociants”.
He explains: “It’s not just a relationship between buyer and seller. If you see it as a relationship between buyer and seller, you’ve only got 10% of the whole thing. The other 90% is a partnership, if you want to be there for the long term.
“If you just want to do a ‘one shot’ and say: ‘Ok, I’ll try to put my bottle of wine on La Place,’ it can work. There’s a casino down there. You can play at the casino and sometimes it works, ok, but sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time, it doesn’t.”
For his part, Guilisasti believes that négociants will need to be “more selective” in future, weeding out the wines that simply can’t survive the current market downturn. “This year is a turning-point for the premium wines of the world, in the sense that the demand has been slowing down,” he says. “We see a dramatic shift in China, which used to be one of the largest markets for almost all of these great wines. The environment, the business is challenging for everybody.”
Current difficulties, however, only reinforce his belief in Almaviva’s strategy. “Nobody knows how this future will evolve, but these are changing times. We believe more and more in La Place de Bordeaux in this cycle. We believe very much in the strength of Almaviva, in the basis that we have built in these 30 years, in the wine, in the relationship, in the recognition.”
Given Almaviva’s success, might the partners embark on another Chilean adventure – beyond, that is, Almaviva’s second wine, Epu, which launched on La Place in 2021? Both Guilisasti and Sereys de Rothschild, however, are swift to dismiss the idea.
“First of all, let me tell you – and I think that Rafael will agree with me – making sure that Almaviva works well and is a success is already a lot of energy,” says Sereys de Rothschild. “So, you know, we have to stay focused. I mean, one important thing about wine is you figure it out so it works well, and then you get your eye away from the ball, and then you lose it. These projects are extremely successful, and at the same time extremely fragile.”
“You must have a wine, and a proposal for the wine in the market,” adds Guilisasti. “When you focus on one wine, you have more chance to get your message to the consumer, or to the key retailer.”
“That’s very true,” continues Sereys de Rothschild. “You could have asked the same question about Opus One. We never diverted from Opus One. So why is Opus One a success? The same reason as with Almaviva. We just stayed focused on Opus One, period, end of story. We didn’t suddenly go: ‘Oh, let’s do a white wine with Opus One, let’s do a cuvée blah blah blah’ – no, no, no, Opus One, [second wine] Overture, and let’s go forward.
“When you look at the other great wines, whether it’s Don Melchor, whether it’s Sassicaia, whether it’s Petrus, whether it’s Mouton, whether it’s Opus One, it’s always one wine. When you go to Sassicaia, you drink one wine. You don’t start to drink a special cuvée of this, a special cuvée of that. When you go to Petrus, you drink one wine. When you go to Don Melchor, you drink one wine.
“It’s exactly the same thing: focus on what you’re doing, try and do it better, try to make sure that people don’t pinch your place. As I was saying before, there’s a lot of people who want to be where we are, so let’s defend our position.”
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The story of Almaviva part I: creation and evolution