Wendy Narby: You don’t have to age Bordeaux

Being expensive and requiring long cellaring are among some of the misconceptions consumers have about Bordeaux that trade professionals have to debunk, says Wendy Narby, a senior lecturer at the École du Vin de Bordeaux.

Wendy Narby, senior lecturer at Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux

‘Widely known but often misunderstood’ can perhaps best summarise consumer perception of Bordeaux, where its classified first growth wines are among the world’s most expensive bottles.

Narby, a Bordeaux wine educator, however, said that there are “many pre-conceived perceptions about Bordeaux that are simply not true,” while speaking to media at a luncheon hosted by local importer Altaya Wines to highlight Medoc wines from 1990s.

“One is that you have to age Bordeaux wine. Some wines are very privileged and they do get better with age – these wines shown here are some wonderful examples – but now they are making wines that are very accessible, wines with more Merlot that can make the wine more drinkable,” Narby stated, while referring to Château Potensac 1995, Château Pontet Canet 1994, Château Gruaud Larose 1995, Château Sociando Mallet Haut Medoc 1996 served at the lunch.

“Then everyone thinks that everything out of Bordeaux is expensive and classified. It’s not, only 2% are within the classification, even in the Médoc, only 22% of the surface area is in the classification. Even in Medoc, that doesn’t make up the majority,” she stressed.

“Another false pre-conceived perception is the fact that Bordeaux is Cabernet driven. It’s not. 60% of the planting is Merlot,” she continued. “It’s really important to train people in the trade so they can give a true impression of Bordeaux when they are talking about the wine.”

Speaking about China, where 502,000 hectolitres of wines worth €300 million were shipped to last year, according to CIVB, Narby laments that despite the impressive volume and value, the majority of wines arriving on China’s shore are dominated by lower-end wines.

Comparing Hong Kong and mainland China, she said, “Now Hong Kong has become a wine hub since the tax has been removed. It’s such a vibrant market, but Hong Kong is such an interesting market because you buy the premier crus, while you look at China, they buy the cheap wines and a few expensive wines, there’s a bit hole in the middle. So what Bordeaux needs to do is to get people to understand the mid-range. It’s a generation thing and takes time.”

However, when the bulk Bordeaux wines arrived in China, wine merchants can slap their labels, bottle the wines on shore and sell them off at a much higher price,  because of the ‘Bordeaux lure’ created by the misconception that anything that has Bordeaux on it can fetch higher price.

“As long as they get Bordeaux on the label, consumers think it’s expensive,” Narby stated, before going on to comment on the Chinese vineyard buying frenzy in Bordeaux.

“There are about 8,000 vineyards in Bordeaux, and China’s ownership is about 150. It’s a lot less than the English, the Dutch, the Belgian,” she admitted, “but they bought – with a few exceptions – really entry level properties. But it has Bordeaux on the label, and they can ship it all out there and sell the wines back to mainland market.”