For most of you, this will only be of anecdotal interest and it’s long plus boring - you have been warned!!
In 1973, François-Paul Bordais, the chairman of a local supermarket central buying service in Brittany hit on the idea of contacting Bordeaux négociants to see whether or not they would be interested in selling their stock in the supermarkets in his area. At the time, the only wine sold in any French supermarkets, or hypermarkets as they were becoming, was the very cheap and cheerful type, mostly the really awful stuff produced in the Languedoc at the time. Fine wine was only sold by wine merchants.
At first, the responses were lukewarm to say the least, because the négociants were not keen on the idea of damaging the image of their products by selling them next to lavatory paper and dustbin bags, but François-Paul was a wine-lover and didn’t give up so easily. He succeeded in convincing two companies - Moueix and Ginestet, who agreed to provide wines at much lower prices than the normal rates at the time, and the very first “Foire aux Vins” took place in a Leclerc supermarket in St.Pol de Léon, a small town in Brittany.
After this very modest beginning, the concept became increasingly successful in the years that followed, spreading quickly around the country. The poor economic climate was a factor, along with the string of poor vintages - Bordeaux had a lot of mediocre wine to sell.
By the mid-80s, “Les Foires aux Vins” had become a French institution. Every year, every hypermarket in every town in the country would offer huge stocks of wine, mostly Bordeaux, at irresistible prices. Even cases of bottles of the most prestigious chateaux were offered at much lower rates than EP. 70% of adult French people got used to buying their wine this way. Bordeaux became known for producing quality wines at decent prices.
Over time, instead of just selling whatever the négociants wanted to get rid of; the hypermarket chains became active EP buyers. Sometimes this would be done by their national or regional buying services, sometimes by individual hypermarkets themselves. In order to ensure they sold the stock they had bought, they persuaded the négociants to persuade château owners or representatives to take part of the FAV, presenting their wines at special tasting evenings. This was all very successful and until quite recently (probably ten years ago) the hypermarkets were responsible for 40% of all EP annual sales.
It was a win-win situation. The hypermarkets’ mark-ups were very small - they often sold at cost price, but in doing so they attracted quality customers who would buy other products at the same time as the wine. For the customers, it was the annual chance to buy good wines at unbeatable prices, always at least 10 or 15% less than EP, often much more. Prices were low enough to make the wines accessible to most French people and many were able to discover fine Bordeaux for the first time. In turn, négociants moved vast quantities of stock just after receiving the wines following bottling by the châteaux, reducing the need to stock them post-vintage. The châteaux themselves were able to greatly improve the image and market share of their wines.
So what went wrong?
People got greedy.
Firstly, speculators started targeting FAVs, understanding that they could make a quick profit selling on what they bought. At the time, in the early 00s, the internet was gaining traction as access speeds improved, and wine began to appear in online auctions (or Ebay), but also, traditional wine auctions were increasingly popular. So on the opening morning of FAVs, people would fight to grab cases of the rarest wines (not only the speculators). In turn, some châteaux tired of seeing their wines appear on the secondary market for much higher prices than the EP price.
So prices went up. At EP 2005, many Bordeaux châteaux increased their prices by 50%, some by over 100%, and not even the most prestigious (eg Branaire), a few by a whopping 300%, more or less (eg Troplong - 282%, Larcis-Ducasse - 296%!!). Of course it is fair to argue that the chateaux were justified in increasing their prices (and they have continued to be able to do so since).
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact year when the FAV rot set in, but I would say 2007 and 2008, when the 2005s and then the 2006s hit the shelves.
I would argue there were two problems with this. Some of the prices were plainly unrealistic. A wine like Lascombes, for example, whatever one thinks of the style at the time, didn’t have the necessary prestige to carry a 50€ price tag, as it proved, since two years later the stock was still on the shelves. Secondly, the wines were unsuitable for drinking at purchase, or even in the following years - indeed, seventeen years later, some are still not ready. Many people don’t have a proper cellar and cannot wait that long. Those that did open the bottles bought for special celebrations were disappointed.
The following year, the 2006s hit the shelves - and it was worse still. Prices had only come down by around 10 to 15%, for a vintage not as prestigious as 2005. A wine like Ducru-Beaucaillou cost over double the price of the 2004, although the quality was similar to that of the latter. Once again, sales dropped.
Apart from a brief return to form when the 2008s hit the shelves, this has been the case ever since.
Foires aux Vins continue to take place every Autumn, and now every Spring too, but with progressively less Bordeaux, and on a very much smaller scale. Only ten years ago, my local shops would devote around 25% of their entire selling area to wine, with Bordeaux taking up most of the space: today, at most a couple of alleyways are enough.
This year was the worst for FAVs I have ever seen. Most of the Bordeaux on sale were second wines, with the odd 2021 “Grand Vin”. I had expected the latter to be heavily discounted - not even: Giscours 2021 at 54€, Lagrange 2021 at 51€, for example. Crazy. Nobody was interested and I noticed that some of the cases remained untouched for the full two weeks of the FAVs.
So why does this matter? Well, it doesn’t of course, but it will have consequences for Bordeaux and I would argue that it already has.
Sales of wine in France are down anyway, and red wine in particular. Sales of prestige Bordeaux in shops are obviously not what they were - because the average Joe can no longer afford them. Salaries have not kept pace with the increased prices and today, people are not ready to pay the asking price - hence the smaller stocks offered by the shops. It’s a vicious circle which is resulting in the fact that for most French people, Bordeaux and especially the CCs, are no longer of any interest.
This cannot be good for Bordeaux. Yes, of course geeks like me can find the wines online at the right prices. But the average punter who would have picked up a random bottle to try will no longer do so. Therefore, an entire generation of French people will be lost to Bordeaux.
When you combine this state of affairs with the parlous state of the EP market, it does add up to a pretty big crisis. Where will the rest of the wine go? Is there really a global market capable of taking up the slack? It will be interesting to see, but it doesn’t make me confident for the future.
Thanks for reading this tosh and sorry for the unedited version - I pressed send by mistake!
