the average value created by actual winemaking (including on top estates) has
been a meagre five to eight per cent. Grand Crus are monuments of wine his-
tory, so everything looks better if we examine the ‘valeur vénale', or estate value,
which (depending on the time of the purchase) can increase by up to 1,000%
not including investment, sometimes causing inheritance taxes to rocket and
also creating high levels of debt if inheritances are divided up. However, for
those who bought and sold at the wrong time it can also mean a -50% loss.
Nevertheless, if considered over the past twenty years, the top estates are true
treasure troves. Translated into bottle terms, no one in Bordeaux can produce
wines for less than 1.5 euros per bottle, and top quality for less than 5 euros is
an illusion. However, nowhere do production costs rise much above 20 euros,
which allows fortunate producers to gild many taps, employ many gardeners,
dig many pools, sponsor many artists and much more: in terms of the prices cur-
rently being applied (and depending on their level of debt, as mentioned above),
in good years this means profits of 50% or more. But remember, this only ap-
plies to the top 20 or 30 most famous estates – wineries in the 40th to 500th
positions have similarly high production costs but invest considerably more in
marketing and sales whilst having to sell their wines at significantly reduced
margins. As in most other high-quality wine regions, the widest range of per-
fectly respectable wines in Bordeaux from a quality perspective can be found at
between 20 and 40 euros. Depending on the expenditure incurred, profits in the
red wine sector range from moderate to good, but can start plummet in a flash
when loans take their toll, crisis looms on the global market and the tax authori-
ties are at the door. The situation is equally fraught at the other end of the scale:
the 500th to 1,000th positions are occupied by wines whose style has nothing
in common with the Grand Crus but which are still called Bordeaux, and whose
History The theatre of aging
Barrels at Pédesclaux
44
History Profit calculations
existence is therefore based on maintaining the pretence that they are similar to
a Grand Cru but available for much less money.
For Bordeaux simply suggests Grand Cru and implies a complicated, exces-
sive, high-quality wine. Instead of unsuccessfully tagging along behind this idi-
otic ideal, winemakers either side of the Grand Cru line (which is a world of its
own) would be better off setting their minds to producing good, fresh, fun wines
for cheerful consumption as an increasing number of winemakers are now do-
ing – modern wines for everyone, rather than being forced to struggle between
heaven and hell at the limit of profitability. If Tuscany can do it, then why can't
Bordeaux – in the Côtes or Entre-Deux-Mers – do the same? Every month Gi-
ronde winemakers throw in the towel, countless producers are surviving by
the skin of their teeth, and average prices in Bordeaux are still no better than
in Beaujolais or Côtes du Rhône. Don't forget that Bordeaux floods the global
market with around a billion (1,000,000,000) bottles of wine every year, more
than 90% of which have nothing in common with Grand Crus, and the mere fact
that some of this is described as Bordeaux Supérieur implies that there must be
plenty of ‘Bordeaux Inférieur'!
Thanks to the Internet, we now have the ability to compare the prices of
world-famous brands in an instant. Online trade in Bordeaux is flourishing (and
for the time being is not upsetting the traditional system, just traditional Bor-
deaux merchants). Grands Crus are available via numerous channels, and the
margins that an intermediary can make are on average relatively modest (un-
less they go into cellaring and create added value from long aging). To this can
be added competition from major (French) distributors who are increasingly
seeking to circumvent the primeur-courtier-merchant system and use Grands
Crus as lures. Special offers arrive in our mailboxes and the (executive) staff
of Bordeaux Grands Crus are the first to run to the supermarket. Things look
rather different at the other end of the scale, with rules that bring to mind the
ills of the agricultural economy. Producers are receiving barely enough money
to survive, sellers are trusting in the power of a recognisable name and fanning
the flames of misunderstanding until they are blazing, slashing the margins of
wines bought cheap which have to compete with Grands Crus, and once again
wine enthusiasts are pulling chestnuts out of the fire and getting their fingers
burnt on illusory bargains. And because the rest of the wine world grumbles
about Bordeaux in public but emulates it in private, there are very few real al-
ternatives.
45
The Bordeaux-makers History
The Bordeaux makers
Well, first there are the North Africans. Although they do not drink great Bor-
deaux, they play a major role in producing it, for which they are paid a pittance.
They are also Muslims, which poses no problems, as the Bordelais have always
shared Old Fritz's view that everyone should be holy in their own way. Although
Bordeaux has always been Catholic, it has successfully traded with Israelites,
Protestants and Anglicans who had become the ultimate controllers of global
trade, and its vines are now cultivated by Muslims, particularly in the historic
left bank regions of Bordeaux, largely by (local) women. Despite the high unem-
ployment rate, your average Frenchman does not want to get his hands dirty
with