It’s good to see Bordeaux taking the bull by the horns and admitting things have gone slightly awry for the majority of the region’s wine industry.
It has recognised that beyond the prized ‘classed growths’, the financial state and the structure of the region’s grape growers and winemakers is pretty dire. The economic crisis has precipitated their demise but it was always coming, particularly with the decline in consumption in the domestic market.
While it is widely recognised that Bordeaux is the most prestigious region in the world, the generic brand has been damaged by low quality players who provide poor value for money. Bordeaux under £10? I wouldn’t bother.
The region is too serious and elitist compared to Australia, for example. The labels are confusing and the wines can be somewhat austere when tasted next to friendly, fruit-filled New World Cabernets.
Bordeaux Tomorrow is a 27-page plan to address the region’s strengths and weaknesses on a global stage.The main points are:
-make the offer easier to read by the consumer
-enhance the level of perceived quality
-help non-competitive players to become more successful
-encourage consolidation of cooperatives
-become stronger in generic appellations
-fight counterfeit wines
The scheme will be rolled out over the next three years.
Part of the plan is to categorise the wines in a similar vein to Wine Australia. It does not have Brand Champions or Regional Heroes but Art, Exploration, Fun and Basique. This seems rather airy-fairy to me but we’ll see what they do with it. It looks like they’re going to try and select a small selection of wines in each category for particular export markets to fight the good fight.
They don’t say how much money is going to be behind this new push but they will need more than simply good intentions to make this a success.
