‘We don’t associate La Place with succulent, fresh, juicy, whites – but we will in years to come’
La Place de Bordeaux’ hors Bordeaux campaign is increasingly embracing white wines – evidence that it is evolving its offer and looking at new ways to respond in a declining market, db‘s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay tells Arabella Mileham in db’s latest podcast.
Speaking to the drinks business in a recent podcast (available here), Hay said there was a sense in which the Loire white wines (typically but not exclusively from Chenin blanc) coming to La Place for the first time showed that negociants and courtiers were responding to the changing demands of the market.
“It shows that the wines coming to La Place this year are a little bit different than they were last year,” Hay told db. “And that reflects the way in which the brokers, the merchants, the courtiers and the properties see the evolution of demand, which is maybe a little bit more towards white wines and probably towards wines which are more competitively priced.”
Although the number of wines being released in this autumn campaign was roughly the same – and the market has stabilised in terms of its offer, there was “a little bit of movement” nonetheless and that the number remains the same, roughly 150, belies the complexities of this year’s campaign.
While there had been, he said, “a slowdown in the growth of the size of this market”, with “a lot of projects “put on hold” and while some names have withdrawn from La Place, others who had left previously are “talking about coming back”, making it a more complex picture than it might initially seem.
He argued that in a difficult market, “it’s more important to have a better distribution” – and “La Place turns out to be quite good at that, even in a difficult context [of the market].”
“But I think we are seeing some tweaks. There were wines which came to La Place in the up-phase, which were very good wines very carefully selected, but they didn’t already have much of a global reputation.”
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Whereas before the market conditions became difficult, the releases were largely driven by what negotiator wanted to add to their list of wines alongside the Bordeaux offerings, because the leading negotiable now make “quite a significant percentage of their market return from wines which come from beyond Bordeaux”, the approach has changed and is now “much more what could work well” and for wines that can benefit from being distributed in a different way their traditional distribution.
There are, he said “some beautiful, beautiful, succulent, fresh, juicy, white wines to be had, and we don’t often associate those with La Place, but I think we will come to do so in the years ahead. I expect to see more of these wines coming to that class, they represent very good value because they’re not seen as kind of tradable commodities in the way that some of the some of the more elite Reds have been. “
“But I think they’re very interesting to make for great drinking.”
In a market that “is moving a bit towards the whites” he noted wines “worth calling attention to”, notably the Loire whites, in particular from Domaine Sébastien Brunet, “Those are stunning and for any wine lover who buys top end wine, these are a wonderful price point where you’re not going to be breaking the bank”. He also noted the German Rieslings, which were first released last year, and the Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese No. 7 Nouvelle Vague Grand Cuvée 2005, a new release from Austria, which he gave 100 points, as well as and Zuccardi’s new high altitude non-malolatic Chardonnay, El Camino de las Flores, which was unveiled over the summer.
To listen to the full podcast, click here:
For Colin’s full tasting notes on this year’s Hors Bordeaux campaigns by region, see here: Italy and Spain (reds); France (reds); USA (reds); Chile & Argentina (reds); Australia and New Zealand (reds); Germany; the whites; Champagne; sweet wines.
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