How Will The Primeur Campaign Unfold?

As for the Bordeaux calendar, what about the festival of flowers, that great spring meeting of the world of wine in Bordeaux?

We are considering the possibility of canceling this event. Officially, the decision will be made this week. There would be something indecent about wanting to keep a festive event that is not essential to Bordeaux business today. This is not reasonable. The board of directors will decide by means of a written consultation. The strong trend is towards cancellation with a possible postponement to the harvest period, to try to establish at this time an event that will be called “the harvest ban”. You have to go step by step. But it is clear that the flower festival cannot be celebrated in June as if nothing had happened.

And what about the Primeur campaign, which was to take place in April. What is going to happen?

I have heard that there are those who want to keep the primeur campaign early at all costs before the summer. This seems illusory to me in the current context. I would be delighted, like all owners, to be able to carry out a primeur campaign at that time. But again, you have to be a little decent. The United States will be in lockdown, Japan will be in lockdown… We will barely get out of this and half of the merchants will be affected financially, because there will have been very few sales. The critics will not have had the opportunity to taste the wines, our clients will not have come to Bordeaux to find out about the vintage… Wanting to force a hand at all costs in the markets seems to me to be proof of arrogance that we do not need. It would be more prudent to wait until the beginning of the fall if we want to have a good campaign of early products. Finally, between the early primeur campaign of the great vintages, which usually takes place between mid-May and the end of June, and a postponement to the months of September and October, there is only a 3-month lag. Considering the times we live in, this doesn’t seem dramatic to me.

But the early Primeur campaign absolutely must take place…

The worst thing would be not to do a primeur campaign because it is a distinctive element of Bordeaux Grands Crus. It gives us a global vision. If we do not organize it, we will agree with some of our detractors, who will be happy to say that the early vegetables of Bordeaux are useless.

Some owners have decided to organize their own early primeur campaign. In other words, they have chosen to go to the American and Asian markets themselves, as soon as possible… What do you think?

As soon as we can get back on the planes with optimal security, I will be the first to say that it is our turn to go see our clients. I will certainly be the first to go to Vinexpo in Hong Kong to present the 2019 vintage to our Asian customers. But I don’t see the end of the tunnel until the end of the summer. You have to know who to contact, who are the merchants who are willing to buy wines… And what will be the state of the American market, of Asia, in a few months…