Is Bordeaux bouncing back?

By Rebecca Gibb MW

Published: 18 October, 2016

London will be swimming in claret tomorrow, as the Bordeaux wine trade descends on the Lindley Hall to show off its 2014 vintage, and its producers have plenty of reasons to smile after a forgettable first half of the decade

Following a comparatively successful 2015 en primeur campaign, the fine wines of Bordeaux seem to be staging a comeback, after that market fell hard in 2011, finally bottoming out in December 2014.

Simon Staples, sales director of Berry Bros. & Rudd said: "Looking back over the past five years, our Bordeaux sales dropped by 50 percent with Barolo and northern Spain filling the gap. Bordeaux is definitely coming back - perhaps because of rocketing Burgundy prices and availability."

Justin Gibbs, co-founder of Liv-ex crunched the numbers. The findings: "Bordeaux has bounced back this year - is the market starting to be a bull market again?" he asked.

Buyers from the US, Hong Kong and even Bordeaux are seeing genuine opportunity to buy up stocks held in the UK with the recent collapse of sterling following the announcement that Britain would trigger Article 50 in early 2017, starting the process of leaving the European Union

However, it is not clear whether the recovery is speculation or genuine, sustainable growth but there is a seeming normalization of trade.

"Bordeaux accounted for 96% of all trade by value in 2011 we are now back at 75%. Wind back the clock to 2004/05 and we were at 75% so the market's shape has normalized," said Gibbs. "The extremes that was China saw Bordeaux share and prices reach an unsustainable level."

The 2014 wines that the Bordelais will pour at London's Lindley Hall tomorrow were "pleasant to drink" according to wine critic Neal Martin but without the intensity of the subsequent 2015s, they need to find a home beyond the cellars of Bordeaux.

The annual Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux 2014 tasting will be held at: Lindley Hall, Elverton Street, London SW1P 2PE, Wednesday 19 October.

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