2011 Bordeaux Wine : Why Yquem decided to hold back from en primeur campaign ?

Editorial by Guillaume Jourdan

I am always surprised when I ask the question “Do you like Sauternes?”. Everyone agrees Sauternes is a wonderful treat. Then when I ask these people how often do they drink Sauternes, the answer is the same: Very rarely. Do you have some friends who regularly drink Sauternes? I am in the wine business for some time now and I don’t ! My friends drink Champagne, dry white wine and red wine but not Sauternes. They are just too afraid to open a 75cl bottle and not finishing it. Five persons around a table could share a bottle of Sauternes. Just two can share a bottle of red or white wine…Actually the same happens for any sweet wine, not only Sauternes.

Why Yquem decided to hold back from en primeur campaign ? We could imagine that the most famous sweet wine made on this planet would not suffer from the recent difficulties heard about the latest en Primeurs campaign. In fact, they may suffer less than any other Sauternes but they still suffer. In fact, like any Sauternes, they are used to suffer. Even for Chateau d’Yquem, it is hard to sell Sauternes to wine merchants who finally are in trouble to find customers.

So selling even less than last year is of no interest for Yquem. Selling less at a lower price is even more annoying as the image of Chateau d’Yquem could be damaged. Maybe not immediately but in a few years when wine merchants – unhappy to stock those wines and also forced to sell the wines to continue their activities – will discount Yquem 2011 at crazy prices. A huge discount compared to vintages such as 2009 or 2010 is not acceptable for a famous chateau like Yquem because pricing is sensitive in the marketing strategy of a luxury product. Also not acceptable because 2011 is a great vintage according to international wine experts and Yquem was the big winner in fact (a Social Media Report done by VitaBella Luxury Wine showed Yquem was by far the most acclaimed 2011 Sauternes after the recent En primeurs week in Bordeaux).

For all those reasons, I think Yquem is right to hold back from en primeur campaign. And for those of you who still wonder why other Sauternes chateaux are not doing the same, I have a short answer: Finance.