Opinion Analysis on Bordeaux En Primeur 2014: It will be positive, very positive!

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VitaBella Luxury Wine has been at the forefront of BIG DATA for several years now, helping the great names in wine with their international Marketing & Communication strategy. Each year we conduct an opinion survey about Bordeaux Futures ahead of the key En Primeurs week. Once again this year, the analysis – using a multilingual approach – has allowed us to spot the strong trends emerging for the 2014 wines. And for the 2014 Bordeaux vintage the outlook is positive, we would even say very positive!

At least that is what emerges from our survey which offers a real-time view of what the first people to taste the 2014 vintage think. Although the En Primeur Week is still seven days away, tastings of the 2014 vintage en primeur are very much under way already. In addition to the international critics already present in Bordeaux, numerous professionals (negociants, merchants etc.) have already been tasting wines from the major châteaux, and they have formed their opinions. In the era of Big Data and mushrooming social networks, it has become crucial for the great names in wine to make use of this flood of data (newspaper articles, conversations on social networks and forums etc.) and identify the right strategic information in order to optimise their activity.

Although in recent weeks comments have been all about price and the need to lower en primeur prices to ensure the success of this new campaign, it must be noted that discussions have become more balanced in the last few days, focusing on the intrinsic quality of the wines. Beginning this week, people have been talking about the quality of the wine. And the sentiment for the 2014 Bordeaux vintage seems very positive in many respects given the comments that have been made:

1) “The tastings went very well“: rare are the negative comments about 2014, no major shortcoming has been mentioned
2) “The best vintage since 2010″: this comment could almost be the slogan for 2014 Futures
3) “Fresh“: 2014 is on-trend, in the “fresh” style everyone is moving towards, breaking with high-alcohol, overly full-bodied wines
4) “Classic“: 2014 is pleasing and often compared to vintages which today are enjoyable to drink

Châteaux owners then can look forward to good to very good scores compared with recent years. Very good yes, but the scores will not be exceptional because the analysis has thrown up one recurring comment: “This is not up to the same standard as 2009 and 2010.”Overall, the survey remains very positive. But does this mean everyone will be buying up the 2014 futures? No, because overriding the positive effect of virtual parity between the Euro and the Dollar, the image of Bordeaux Futures has taken a hit and it will be a few more years before this institution is restored to its former glory. Among comments in the 15 languages surveyed, the vast majority were along those lines. The damage has been done and it will require more than one “fresh, classic” vintage at a reasonable price to repair it. An image is built over time and when it has been tarnished, one good vintage and one good price are not enough. It will take many….