BDX brand to make Bordeaux ‘more accessible’

Les Grands Chais de France (GCF) is to launch a Merlot-based claret brand called BDX to make Bordeaux “more accessible and easier for wine drinkers to understand”.

BDX is sealed with a very colourful screwcap

Due to be officially unveiled at the London Wine Fair on Monday 22 May, BDX is sealed with a screwcap, prominently features the term ‘claret’, and comes with “funky packaging”, according to GCF, the group behind JP Chenet, France’s best-selling wine brand.

The company – which is also the largest independent supplier of French wines into the UK – adds that the new brand has been created “exclusively” for Britain’s on-trade and independent retailers, and has a suggested retail selling price of around £6.50.

Of course, GCF isn’t the first French wine group to try to demystify Bordeaux with a branded offering aimed at newcomers to the region and/or a younger generation.

For example, three year’s ago, Bordeaux négociant Yvon Mau created Le Petit Grand – a Bordeaux red and white wine sealed under screwcap with an RRP of around £9 in the UK.

Speaking to the drinks business at the launch of Le Petit Grand in June 2013, Yvon Mau’s marketing manager Frédérique Lenoir said, “It has been created for the consumer who doesn’t drink Bordeaux because they think it’s too complicated.”

Le Petit Grand was created for the wine drinker who thinks that Bordeaux is too complicated

Although the brand still exists, it has since pulled out of the UK market.

Then, in early 2016, a new brand of entry-level wines from Bordeaux launched in the US called Be Bordô. Aiming to re-ignite sales for region’s wines in North America, the brand, which has a suggested retail price of $10-$12, has been designed to be an “accessible, easy-to-understand Bordeaux wine appealing to a New generation of wine lovers”, according to Be Bordô owner Stéphane Quien, who is president of Stephane Quien Wine & Spirits (SQWS).

Meanwhile, Bordeaux’s most famous mainstream wine brand, Mouton Cadet, unveiled a new look at ProWein in March this year, following a major project to fully secure grape sourcing for the wine, which produces 12 million bottles annually.

Speaking to db at the launch of the new Mouton Cadet, Lechanoine said, “This is the achievement of more than a decade of technical homework, so that’s it, we’re done, and we’ve got new packaging too.”

Continuing he said, “It is a wine that the Baroness would drink, even at the château,” adding, “I am just so sorry that she is not here to see it.”

While Bordeaux is deemed to be too complicated for young people who are new to wine, the limited success of entry level ‘branded’ wines from the region, particularly in the UK, may have more to do with a feeling that the famous wine region’s price-quality ratio lags the competition from other parts of the wine world, as well as the sense that Bordeaux is not seen as ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’.

However, speaking to db in March this year, Allan Sichel, who is the president of Bordeaux Wine Council, said that the CIVB has “the tools” to communicate Bordeaux effectively following the launch of the global “More to Discover” campaign in late 2014, and an increased social media presence for the region.

Others have also observed a marked quality improvement in ‘everyday’ Bordeaux.

Finally, it should be said that while Bordeaux may be deemed too complicated among inexperienced wine drinkers, for fine wine collectors, the region is seen as relatively easy to understand, with Left Bank Bordeaux benefitting from a clear quality hierarchy laid down in the 1855 classification.

Furthermore, at the middle to high end, Bordeaux is increasingly seen as good value, especially compared to the great wines of Burgundy.

Read more:

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