How much of that is skewed by the critics outside of Vinous and ERP?
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You can see all the raw data on my website! I don’t feel informed enough to give people behind the scenes analysis, so I wanted to create a transparent way for people to see the raw data and make their own decisions.
I hope this translates into lower release prices for the remaining EP wines. So far we haven’t seen it.
Doubt it. I think if anything the other way sadly
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I’m not @William_Kelley, who probably knows the correct answer here, but I suspect a combination of better farming practices like cover crops to manage heat/ripeness, lower merlot content, and different soils.
There’s also a bit in a World of Fine Wine article where Guillaume Pouthier attributes higher acidities to the ripe stems (which I will confess I’ve never heard to be the case):
Guillaume is unfazed and advises that in a hot vintage like 2022 the process makes a lot of sense; the stalks were ripe, but their inherent acidity and their structural imposition on the must itself has been such to significantly alter the profile of the wine. Natural acidity is raised, and the alcohol level lowered, in this instance by a whole degree, to 13.5%.
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Everything I have read re. stems is a multitude of impacts from adding structure, enhancing aromatics, helping ferments, raising pH, and lowering alcohols but I haven’t seen where it raises acidity.
Any other Chateau using this in BDX is where I am unaware.
I’m not sure you heard correctly. The chateau who sold En Primeur, sold all the wine that had to offer. They are happy. That’s how they see it.
The negociants and merchants, that’s often an entirely different story.
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Some background.
Having spent the last two harvests ‘helping’ destem many hours by hand (not with a table literally by hand) it’s interesting to see different approaches.
Considering the hateau can basically mandate volumes to negociants and merchants, their opinion is largely irrelevant. The real measure of EP is at the merchants IMHO
Put another way, if EP was a success we wouldn’t see merchants getting offered backbook margin (at least one has confirmed to me this was happening), offering VIP confidential offers with up to 10% off on palmer, Angelus, ausone (several merchants), etc
Not to say everything is a fail. For me as a consumer, I would say BSB, cheval blanc, carmes, carruades, beychevelle, Leoville Barton have definitely been a success and km sure there are more too
Edit - apols I think I either missed, or you edited, your comment
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Rouget in Pomerol uses over 40 % stems. Le Puy in Cotes de Francs uses a lot. I think Chateau Margaux includes a tiny portion, maybe between .5 - 1%. Angelus and La Fleur de Bouard have experimented with it.
Stems slightly reduce alcohol and raise pH while adding more salty minerality and lessening the color.
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That’s not what one specific Chateau manager (who knows you well and you know him too obviously) told me just yesterday. He was very disappointed.
Well they shouldn’t be so tone deaf to the world.
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The measure of success in the marketplace is sales the consumer. The days are gone when every wine sells out instantly. It will take at least one year to have a clear picture and that’s going to depend on what happens in 2023, as well as the economy. But the increasing value in the stock market makes people feel richer, so I Susie t the top wines will sell.
From there the scores the finished wines obtain will drive sales, or not. That takes another year.
My advice, if the wine is priced at a level it’s worth to a consumer to drink, a few points either way will not matter by the time the wine is ready to drink.
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I cannot speak for all chateaux, but generally speaking, for most estates, they do not think about end users. They view the market as sales to the negociant. I do not agree with their view. But that’s how 99% see it. Their wines are sold and they will be paid before the end of the year.
But what I understand is that negociants are not taking up as much as producers expected. I may be wrong, of course, but that is what I understood as the reason for the frustration.
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Negociants are not forced to take any of their allocation. But if they pass or do not take all the wine they’re offered, they risk losing future allocations.
The biggest negociants have have more money than most owners, so they buy everything. If smaller negociants do take their allocation, the biggest players buy any available wine to increase their future allocation.
This is for all 1855 Classified Growths and the more in-demand wines. Maybe 100-150 wines. After that, the game changes.
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Thanks for that link. Interesting that the stalks had inherent acidity; I had always read that stalks were a source of potassium which acts to reduce acidity. Everytime I think I learn something, a data point counter to what I think I learned shows up!
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I’d still take that particular statement with a grain of salt, as everything that I’ve read has been of the "stem inclusion = lower acidity due to K causing tartaric acid to precipitate out. Keep in mind that the French can be exceptionally good bullshitters, and this could be one of those times lol.
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Was offered LCHB @$159 today.
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You think I’m too old (66) to even buy half bottles of '22 Bordeaux. All this hype has me tempted.