Interesante artículo en Elmundovino

Tal vez sea un familiar suyo

si es así, debo comportarme mejor con él, ya que gracias a Andreu conocí el Dominio de Tares, el Marboré, el Puerta Palma.....

Me permito reproduzir aqui una carta salida en el mismo site de Jancis, hace rato, de un pequeno productor que habla muy abiertamente de sus problemas. En general no me gusta sacar cosas del site de JR (de la parte por subscripcion) porque entendo que ella viva de sus opiniones, de su sinceridad y confiabilidad, y que reproducir parte de los articulos que tienen aceso exclusivo es violar su derecho autoral. Pero en ese caso, como se trata de una carta en el foro de lectores y ademas de alguien que pide ayuda no creo sea malo hacerlo. Vosotros que estan cerca de Francia y tienen facilidads de compra por la zona del euro a lo mejor pueden catar eses vinos y quien sabe no es una gran oportunidad? Saludos.
A cri de coeur from a Médoc château

Frédéric Ducos, Médoc:

I’ve read attentively your very interesting article on the Médoc wine market. This economic situation is very dramatic for the growers, it’s the biggest crisis we have ever known. Today the ";grand cru"; wines increase the primeur prices by about 50 per cent, perhaps more. My brother works in marketing for Baron Philippe de Rothschild. He launched Mouton 2003 at 120 Euros a bottle!

At the same time, some buyers offer us a price of 1 Euro a bottle for a Médoc non-classified 2003 in bulk with a ";château"; brand name! When grands crus are making more and more money, other producers are not able to live on their labour. This situation is terrible.

A few words on Goulée 2003 (see wines of the week): I know very well the vines of this vintage because they are very close to my vineyard .(the soil, situation, climate and wine producing area are the same).

I submitted my 2003 primeur wine to Robert Parker this year, but for the first year of existence, Goulée 2003 has a tasting note in The Wine Advocate and me nothing. (It’s not a surprise. I know that it will difficult to obtain a tasting note, but I try every year...)

The problem is that the price of Goulée 2003 is about £140 a dozen and Ch Laulan Ducos 2003 primeur is at 5 Euros a bottle... With those economic problems, the owners of crus classés can buy the best vines and terroir in Médoc for nothing.

For all that, Ch Laulan Ducos 2000 was classified this year with the best Médoc wines in the Guide Hachette, but that’s not enough to sell my products at a good price because I have many running costs and a production about 38 hl/ha (like many grands crus). I don’t sell my wine in the Bordeaux ";place"; [official and multi-layered market via the merchants] en primeur. This means I must keep the bottles 2 or 3 years before selling, which costs too much money. The price for a very good Médoc non-classified (in bulk) after 2 or 3 years of storage is about 3.5 Euros which is not enough to pay all the costs.

I took the head of the property after the death of my father in an road accident (he was only 46 years old) in 2000. It was very important for me to continue the work of my father, but it’s really difficult in this economic situation and especially in the very closed market of best wines.

I don’t know how long I will be able to keep the family domaine. I think I have good quality but I don’t know what to do in order to find new buyers and increase my selling prices to a more correct level. I have deep gravel soils, very limited production. I work with Mr Boisseneau [very reputable oenologist] for the wine diagnostic and have recruited Mr Gobinau, a very professional winemaker who has made many vintages of Chx Lascombes, Maucaillou and Phélan Ségur....I can’t do more.

I’ve tasted in May many grand cru 2003s. It was a surprise. Some of them are less concentrated than my wine. (The best 2003 were probably realised in St Estèphe and in the northern Médoc because we did the grape harvesting later than other areas), but in conclusion it seems as though the most important thing is not the quality of the wine in the bottle, but the label and the brand.

It’s time for buyers (especially the Bordeaux merchants) to realize that they must support the producers who are striving for quality instead of speculating on grands crus or, inversely, selling downmarket wines.

Excuse me for my English language, but it’s a way for me to explain the problems I meet.

Recent tasting notes of Ch Laulan Ducos on www.thewinedoctor.com .
Visit our new web site in English : www.laulanducos.com