Lilian Barton: 2013 pricing ‘a little wrong’

Château Léoville Barton’s Lilian Barton-Sartorius admits that her property’s pricing of 2013 was “a little wrong”.

Lilian Barton-Sartorius manages her family’s three properties with her father Anthony Barton: Châteaux Langoa and Léoville Barton – third and second classified growths in Saint Julien – and Château Mauvesin, a Medoc estate bought by the family in 2011.

In an email to the drinks business last week, Barton-Sartorius requested a right to reply to a story published by thedrinksbusiness.com earlier this month, which focused on the market for 2013 Bordeaux and the pricing of this year’s en primeur release.

In the story, Barton-Sartorius admitted that the demand for 2013 Bordeaux was “lousy”, but also said that it would be necessary to put up prices for the 2014 release, both because of inflationary pressures, and because the vintage was better.

She then sent in the following words, which outline in more detail her thoughts behind the comments previously published by db.

“I believe that every company can make mistakes, even ones that exist for over 200 years. What is important is to remember the lesson and our pricing of 2013 was a little wrong, we have to admit and remember the lesson.

Knowing that, people have to know the inflation rate, which is reflected trough the overall cost of production (salaries, cost of raw material…) which is 12.5% since 2007 in France.

It is then normal and essential that, for a similar vintage quality, prices should go up accordingly. Not because of arrogance, not because of greed, but because this is a natural evolution of the market.


Moreover, talking about Bordeaux as whole is also very sensitive, we are talking about over 9,000 producers and 118,000 hectares of planted vines. People have to be more specific.

Some small producers create wines that are superb and can hardly live from it. They should be able to sell at higher prices.

On the other hand, some châteaux seem not to realise that competition is fierce and that selling their wines too high is dangerous, not to say stupid.


And in the middle, Bordeaux has an exceptional selection of amazing value for money wines with stability in quality unique in the world for this proportion of production.


I am severely against people thinking that a very limited number of overly priced estates reflect all of Bordeaux wines.

It is important to note that there are only two Bordeaux found in the top 50 most expensive wines in the world (15th and 19th position) according to Wine Searcher and that it is only demand that made them reach such prices…


May I add that most producers and châteaux of Bordeaux are very happy to open the doors of their cellar and of their home.

Free to anyone to come and make their own decision on the wines and people who dedicate their lives for this product: wine.”

Lilian Barton-Sartorius manages her family’s three properties with her father Anthony Barton: Châteaux Langoa and Léoville Barton – third and second classified growths in Saint Julien – and Château Mauvesin, a Medoc estate bought by the family in 2011.