It’s kind of fascinating actually - the champenoise talk about terroir in such different ways. We visited Rafael Bereche and Rodolphe Peters in the span of a couple of days last year and they both talked a lot about terroir and yet (quite obviously) take completely different approaches toward winemaking. And Jean-Baptiste Lecallion talks about terroir a lot, since I think he views Cristal (and especially the rose) as terroir driven.
I think the current and younger generation are very influenced by burgundy and view the world through the prism of terroir as well; I do wonder to what extent that filters through even more to the big houses. One of the growers we visited even had a barrel from CLB in the cellar. 
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I didn’t mean to intimate the Champenoise don’t view their wines through the terroir lens. I was mostly focusing on the quantity issue, often hammered between Burg and Bdx, is not so with Champagne, so it there must be something more going on .
I think Champagne is a good intellectual blueprint for Bordeaux. It went from “drink for a celebration” and not viewed as seriously to being viewed as serious wine and at the same intellectual level as Burgundy.
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Right Bank Bordeaux, particularly Pomerol, are relatively scarce. The better ones will probably appreciate more quickly than the much larger output chateaux of the Left Bank, where quality is arguably equally high. But compared to Burgundy, even some of the smaller Right Bank wines are relatively plentiful, and more importantly, with the possible exception of Le Pin, readily available on the secondary market at close to release prices. I still see their pricing going up proportionately higher than Medocs.
Access to Burgundy is limited, people flipping so huge secondary market prices almost at release. And now some estates are raising prices to secondary market levels, after deciding there is no reason to give their clients favored pricing, if they are just going to go off and triple their money in the secondary market.
Things might correct at the top end, but won’t fundamentally change.
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I wasn’t implying you were; I also think for all that we talk about champagne on this forum, the price for champagne is still almost all about the big houses which obviously blend. But more houses have begun to produce single vineyard champagnes and to provide more information about vintages as well.
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I’ve been buying less and less cab dominated blends. Seems the only thing to pair them with is red meat and I’m getting too many in the cellar and eating less red meat. If anything, I predict Bordeaux will follow Sauternes.
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Not sure about that! If you look at producers in Bordeaux who are really refining extraction and élevage such as La Conseillante, I don’t see those wines as being less approachable young in vintages such as 2019 than their grand cru Burgundy counterparts.
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I was thinking primarily left bank rather than right. I entirely take your point regarding Pomerol!
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The point I was making was more than when estates in Bordeaux, California, or wherever start invoking “terroir” as the key heuristic for understanding why their wines are special, they simultaneously also introduce themselves into a conceptual hierarchy in which they can never be Romanée-Conti… Call this hierarchical way of perceiving wine terroir with a capital “T” if you will, but it is very hard to escape. Since pretty much the whole world of wine has embraced this concept, the writing is on the wall.
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Well, I don’t know that a 2019 Lafite is any more closed than a 2019 La Tâche, to be honest! I am not about to go down to the cellar to find out how they show side by side, but the days of having to wait two decades are over, for better and for worse.
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I mentioned La Tache not drinking well young specifically because I think drinking young DRC is a colossal waste 
But on a serious note, I do think that a lot of the producers I mentioned don’t need as much time, and certainly not as much as they did in past years. I think that makes it easier for people to get into Burgundy, which to me explains some of the current trends. You don’t need to pull bottles from an older cellar, you can drink a relatively younger wine and have a great experience.
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I think scarcity is too simplistic an explanation for the fashionability of Burgundy. Terroir probably is, too. Neither one explains why Roumier Cras and Mugnier Fuees are selling for more than most everyone else’s Musigny. And of course neither one explains why Burgundy waited until the last couple years to pop. Sometimes fashion is just that - fashion. It has its own logic, or just as often it has none at all (as with the above-mentioned modern art market, 99.9999% of which is garbage).
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I think what will be interesting to see is what happens to CLB. More established than Lachaux with a real market to support his price moves, so the risk of a fickle market is likely to be lower than for Lachaux which was newer and much more speculative.
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Can you elaborate on what you mean by this? I believe I agree in terms of approachability but would like to understand more about what they’re doing. I’ve recently opened two bottles of 2017 La Conseillante and it drinks extremely well. I tasted it two years ago and loved it. It’s slightly firmer now than it was then but still hard to resist.
Though depending on how young “relatively younger” is, the people doing that regularly may want to consider finding a cheaper new world alternative for the sake of their wallet…
I have literally just finished a first draft of a 5,000 word article that goes into all the technical evolutions in Bordeaux over the last 15 years, to the best of my ability! It will be free-to-read on our site once I’ve done with editing it, so if I may, I will refrain from answering you until that’s been published and then I can happily field as many questions as you’d like to pose.
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Certainly, and I agree with your analysis - but the onus of the question is whether/if Bordeaux will take the lead in our wine culture again, and that question is perhaps easier to answer.
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All commendable, but you represent a declining demographic.
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I think this whole discussion focuses too much on demand and not enough on supply.
Scarcity has very much been a contributor in the last decade because of so many very small harvests in Burgundy.
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Lots of interesting thoughts above. Looking forward to WK article too.
I suspect we’re underestimating the impact of price escalation as a cause, and not just effect, of the market exuberance for Burgundy. I’m not talking about Veblen goods. Rather, there’s a FOMO attitude now that’s striking. It seems every buyer assumes that the wines of the top 50-100 producers (not just top 5-10) will continue to increase significantly. Look at the pricing thread where folks allude to 400% increases within past 5 years and others chime in to bet that their purchases today will be a bargain by next year. They may well be correct, but it does suggest frothiness and not just that all this $700 Burgundy was undervalued for many years. Most people like to feel that they’re getting a good deal, even for pricy luxury items. Not just for flipping or speculation, but for an affirmation of “value”.
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Isn’t there any Barolo, Brunello, Rioja or South African wine that sounds like “LUCK, HAPPINESS, FORTUNE or Endless Life” for Chinese buyers?
That would be of immense help …
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