Wine's world

It is a short letter that has caused quite a stir. The Guinaudeau family, owners of Château Lafleur (4.5 hectares adjacent to Petrus), has announced that it will no longer claim the Pomerol appellation from the 2025 vintage onwards. In practical terms, Lafleur will no longer be allowed to use the term “Château” (reserved for AOP wines) and will be labeled simply as Vin de France, but it will no longer be required to comply with the appellation's restrictive specifications.

“Our climate is changing rapidly and dramatically. [...] We must adapt, reflect and, in practical terms, take action. In reality, we are evolving in the way we manage our vineyards faster than our appellation d'origine contrôlée systems allow.” Indeed, freeing oneself from the constraints of appellation opens up a range of possibilities for adapting to global warming: reducing planting density based on available water reserves, limiting foliage height to reduce evaporation, using irrigation to protect the most sensitive plants, providing occasional shade for the vines, mulching the soil to limit evaporation, etc.

Although Lafleur is currently an exception among Bordeaux's grands crus, it is not the first to give up its appellation in order to gain technical flexibility. This is also the case for the Abbatucci (in Corsica), Didier Dagueneau and Les Poëte (in the Loire) estates, for example. However, given that Lafleur bottles now sell for several hundred euros, it will be interesting to monitor price trends on the secondary market to gauge the “real value” of the Château designation and the AOC.

Another unusual wine transaction has just taken place in Burgundy. 10 ares, or 1,000 m², of the Chevalier-Montrachet grand cru belonging to the Vincent Dancer estate have been acquired by LVMH for... 11 million for the bare ownership alone.

This corresponds to a total price (bare ownership + beneficial ownership) of €120 million euros per hectare for a parcel of a white grand cru that is certainly of high quality, but less prestigious than Montrachet.

Assuming an annual return on investment of 5% and a harvest of 45 hectolitres per hectare, the financial costs will amount to €1,000 per bottle, to which must be added at least the production costs (€50 ? per bottle) and LVMH marketing costs (?). The price of the finest Burgundies, red or white, is not about to fall...

Meanwhile, the price of a one-hectare parcel of the best terroirs in Pauillac or Saint-Émilion stands at a maximum of €3-4 million.

Until now, the "Vieilles Vignes" label was left to the free interpretation of winegrowers, unlike the mandatory labels (alcohol content, PDO, etc.). 

To remove any ambiguity (and combat misleading commercial practices), the Comité National des Vins AOP has adopted the definition proposed by the OIV (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin): to be labelled “Vieilles Vignes”, a wine must come from parcels comprising at least 85% of vines aged 35 years or more.