Anson on Thursday
What now for En Primeur?
First up, you should know that most of the people that I interviewed about the fallout of Bordeaux 2014 don’t want me to name them. So you’re just going to have to trust me that these are serious players with true inside knowledge of what is
Vineyards on the roof of the world
[Jane Anson] We are here because these remote mountains almost certainly are about to challenge the existing wisdom of where to grow quality wine in China.
The silent majority
[Jane Anson] I started thinking this week that maybe we should lay off the stick a little bit more, and bring out the carrots.
First bite
[Jane Anson] In theory, the first tranche is the most alluring aspect of the whole system, in fact the very point of its existence for wine lovers; a good price as a reward for paying upfront for bottles that won’t be delivered for two years.
Between the wires
[Jane Anson] ‘Pruning is the longest, hardest job of the year,’ says Dider Vallade, chef de culture at Château Angélus in Saint Emilion.
The disappearing châteaux
[Jane Anson] What the UGC doesn't need, it is fair to say, are three of their biggest draws announcing that they are taking their wines out of the communal tastings.
100 years of Siran
[Jane Anson] What do you learn from tasting a 100 year vertical of a château from an appellation like Margaux?
What does the drop in oil prices mean for wine?
[Jane Anson] Certainly it’s hard not to feel cheerful about the idea of more disposable income for families to spend on other things. But will it provide the wine market with the stimulus that it clearly needs?
Land fever in Saint Emilion
[Jane Anson] The problem, increasingly, is that one of them is getting column inches for all the wrong reasons.
The shadow men
[Jane Anson] Brokering is a business that dates back almost 900 years to when Bordeaux was a duchy of the English crown, and a need developed for local men to act as liaison between those producing the wine and those selling it.