Hey all! I’m not sure if this has been posted already, although a cursory search seems to indicate it hasn’t. Roughly a month ago a news article was published on The Drinks Business indicating Bouchard Père & Fils would no longer be participating in EP and will no longer make négociant wines. Here’s some relevant quotes:
The 2023 vintage will now be available in March 2026, after a longer cellar ageing which will allow the wines time to mature in bottle and gain added complexity. This lines up with the delayed release of wines across the Artémis Domaines portfolio, in order to “respect [the wines] tasting maturity”, which it said would benefit the market. As a result of the strategic decision, this year will see a re-release of the 2022 vintage alongside with a museum release of older back vintages.
In addition, Bouchard Père & Fils has ceased its négoce business, which amounted to around 60% of its production, Girling said. Speaking to the drinks business at a recent tasting, the estate’s technical director Frédéric Weber said the opportunity would enable the technical team to focus wholly on the estate-grown wines, spending more time “at every step” of the process, from pruning to harvest – thereby enabling them to produce wines with greater precision.
Personally I think overall this is quite a good result on both fronts, although I am slightly concerned about price escalation with the delayed release. I guess we’ll see in a litlte over a year from now. I’m also curious in regards to who will absorb the négoce side of the business given the volumes involved.
I’m also keen on having a crack at some of those museum releases that get offered this year.
I was at a Bouchard-hosted dinner here in the ATL last Fall at Umi Modern. Victor Pepin, Global Sales & Marketing Director for Bouchard hosted and confirms your news. We tasted Bouchard’s 22s which were easy to like and I had my “come to L’Enfant Jesus“ wake up call that sushi + Burgundy is a beautiful thing. Hallelujah.
Bouchard still has large and diverse domaine holdings even after letting go of their negociant wines. A flight towards quality I suppose they would say. (Map below)
IIRC, they had to give up Fevre Chablis in the financial maneuvering/restructuring. ITB folks, can you weigh in? Henriot acquired Bouchard in 1995, Artemis luxury brands partnered/acquired in 2022 apparently.
Fevre is a personal bright spot of affordability and reliable quality in Chablis for me, as is Bouchard’s Le Corton. I like Frédéric Weber‘s winemaking touch. We’ll see what happens to prices now, but surely they will go up. If Artemis pulls a Gouges gouge, I’m out.
Here are the Library releases we sampled:
LIBRARY OFFERING - REDS (packed 1 bottle, wax dipped in wooden box)
2005 Bouchard Pere & Fils Gevery-Chambertin 1er Cru “Les Cazetiers” -$275
2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru - $675
2011 Bouchard Pere & Fils Chambertin Grand Cru - $495
2000 Bouchard Pere & Fils Bonne-Mares Grand Cru - $595
I will search for my notes, but I remember these as more interesting then swoon-worthy. I liked them, but maybe not at that price. That said, I have the palate of a hamster and prefer younger wines with a little sensual primary fruit, so YMMV. If you like your wine older, they have an ocean of library releases to come, so stay tuned.
I think this is as much about the perception of quality as it is about the flight to quality. Even if Bouchard’s production became mostly Domaine (as is Drouhin and Faiveley) it would always be perceived as a “big negociant house”, and those do not command the respect (and especially) the prices of vigneron Domaines. Frederic Weber has been making excellent wines for years now, but they are not perceived to be in the upper echelons of Burgundy and I expect that Artemis wants to change that and to charge more. I am somewhat curious how long it will take to change this perception though - I am honestly not sure, but at least a generation is my suspicion. (I think a glut of older bottles in the secondary market will contribute to that.)
I expect this was also an an easier decision for Artemis to make in the current market. Buying grapes has become more expensive (especially 1er cru and grand cru), and they may well have viewed the additional focus and attention required to make a lower marginal return on the negoce wines to be less desirable, especially if they can increase the marginal returns on the Domaine wines by raising prices (which I strongly suspect is the plan).
I like the Bouchard wines, so from a personal perspective this is a mixed blessing - the days of cheap Cabotte are gone, I suspect - but maybe this will give younger producers a chance to exploit some of the plots Bouchard is giving up. I doubt the small negoce will take on the Chambertin contracts, but Bouchard had a lot of good leases, and some of them may filter down to producers who I think can use some great terroir, especially if they can exercise some control over it. Or not - have been meaning to ask some friends in Burgundy about this.
They already doubled prices between 2018 and 2022 to the point that they are far from the “value play” in Burgundy these days. There’s a lot of Monty you can get for $1k or less, Chevy/Beze for $500 or less, etc. Not saying they don’t want to increase prices further, but I’m not sure they have a lot of room even if they increase their reputation. Their ceiling is going to be the quality of the wine, which, although increased over the years, is still nowhere near the top Domaines like Leflaive or Roulot for whites and many other Domaines for reds.
was it not dujac who also recently confirmed the ending of production for their negoce line up due to costs? negoce wines are super pricey these days relative to most estate wines. sure there are tons of micro negoces producing painfully small and expensive cuvees but how long can the music last?
This is a tautological argument: Bouchard will attain the quality the “elite” Domaines when it has the right prices, which will go up when it attains that high quality, which will happen when the prices go up, etc.
The premise above is that Bouchard is a “value play”, which is precisely the label drinking impression Bouchard is trying to change with this move. Bouchard has been making excellent wines under Frederic Weber for years now. Unless the argument that the quality of their wines is “nowhere near” Roulot or Leflaive is based on consistent blind tasting, its assumption disguised as analysis.
Yes, Jeremy even posted here about it, as I recall, but that’s a little different; Dujac isn’t a volume business, so dropping the negoce range is less impactful to them. For Jeremy, iirc, it was a nice way to expose more people to their style of wines, but it never drove that much profit. For Bouchard, losing 60% of their range is reorienting their business.
As far as how long can the music last - somewhat depends, I think. Not all micro cuvees are super expensive, and to the extent this causes the number of small Domaines to increase, that may be a good thing. It could also lead to consolidation; I don’t know, we’ll see! I do know that one producer I talked to who made a grand cru in 2021 didn’t make it in 2022 or 2023 and openly said it was because of the price of the grapes. If this causes that price to somewhat decrease (less demand), that could be a good thing. I’m not saying it will, but perhaps I’m just an optimist by nature.
i guess my line of thinking is that larger houses have more purchasing power as well as production capabilities. small up starts who share facilities and purchase a tiny amount of fruit surely are not getting the same let alone better pricing as the large players. $75-90 negoce bourgogne rouge is certainly a thing at the moment but it hardly seems sustainable. of course there are other established producers, big and small, who supplement estate fruit with some purchased fruit and manage to sell at tolerable price levels. it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. there definitely feels like there is a lot of burgundy out there at the moment…
I’ve never heard of quantity discounts in Burgundy, it’s a relatively small area with high demand. I’m willing to bet growers just sell the fruit at the same price per, if there was any discounting I’d bet it’s more about setting the price per over a few years.
How many board members have heard of this?
Any other examples of Bourgogne Pinot Noirs that are not from Leroy, Rousseau, etc in those price ranges?
And the same producer, same name, has a Haute Cotes de Nuits for $56.
Something don’t compute here.
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