By JANE ANSON
As the en primeur campaign gets fully underway, there has been one particular phenomenon that has so far been under-reported, but it highly significant.

All the headlines, and the huge number of complaints on Twitter and elsewhere, are aimed at the price rises that we are yet again seeing after the record prices set in 2009 (also, of course, declared a vintage of the century). Among the biggest culprits so far are Château Pontet-Canet (up nearly 40% to €100; maybe the only estate that can get away with it) and Château Boyd Cantenac up nearly 30% to €44.80 (I could go on, see the link ) Read More

By VICTORIA MOORE — THE TELEGRAPH

The leading 5th growth PONTET-CANET has raised its price for the 2010 vintage by 39%.
If anyone thought the warning of American wine critic Robert Parker to the Bordelais this week to be modest with release prices of the 2010 Bordeaux vintage or risk facing a « financial crisis » in the “fragile global economy” was going to calm matters, they counted without the swagger of Château Pontet-Canet.

“How do I decide on the price and timing of the sortie?” Alfred Tesseron, who runs the super-cinquième – the Château was placed as a 5th growth in the famous 1855 classification but its reputation has soared way beyond its ranking – said to me when I visited in April for the annual barrel-sample-tasting circus that precedes the release of prices. “I wait for suddenly one day I wake up and I know what I think.” Read More

By HENRY SAMUEL — THE TELEGRAPH

Robert Parker, the Wine Advocate renowned critic, has warned that wine-lovers of the Western world could end their affair with Bordeaux should its châteaux raise prices on their latest vintage once again.

Parker dubbed « the pope of the vineyards » due to the influence his wine notes wield, said Bordeaux would play a « very dangerous game » if they decided to raise the 2010 prices. Many Bordeaux producers and some critics had hailed 2009 the « vintage of the century » after near-perfect climatic conditions, and prices for the top growths reached record highs. « This is only the eighth vintage of the century in ten years, » commented ironically the successful French winemaking consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt.

Given the hype, Mr Parker, said: « If 2010 is released at higher prices than 2009, we can expect a financial crisis and the emergence of a bubble for Bordeaux’s grands vins. » Read More

By JANE ANSON

The building that hopes to be Bordeaux’s Guggenheim was revealed this week, drawing comparisons from various observers to a ‘decanter’, ‘wine swirling round in a glass’ and a ‘giant thumb’.

The Centre Culturel et Touristique du Vin will be designed by Parisian architects, X-Tu, with London scenography company Casson Mann working on the interior.      The two companies were selected among 113 candidates, and will now prepare for a build starting in early 2013, with a completion date expected for 2014. Read more

By JANE ANSON

The last three days have been spent filming the build-up to the 2010 en primeurs season for www.decanter.com, visiting three chateaux on the Right Bank and three on the Left with a videographer (it’s still ‘cameraman’ in French) who had flown out from London.

The intention was to capture the traditional March preparations in Bordeaux, when life is all about surface calm and behind-the-scenes frantic preparations, made slightly more stressful this year by a protracted vinification process due to a combination of high alcohol/low malic acid and low pH. Read More

By JANE ANSON
Getting some training in for the next primeurs, which begin in around 8 weeks, I had a great day yesterday up in the Médoc, tasting first the Domaines Delon wines at Léoville Las Cases, then down to Lascombes, and finally at Margaux.

Léoville first stop. All 09 vintage, last tasted in exactly this line up during the primeurs one year ago… Read more

A DECANTER Report.

The Sansulas of India can take solace from the fact that they are not the only ones that are tossed around and left in the lurch after working hard promoting a foreign brand which later takes a competitor in its lap, with the Bordeaux First Growth Château Lafite which has been in news for the prices shooting up in auctions and retail, changing partner in China after seven years’ successful relationship.

The seven-year relationship between Domaines Barons de Rothschild, owners of Château Lafite and their Chinese distributor Summergate has ended.  With effect from January 1 next year, their competitor and the biggest importer in China, ASC would be marketing their wines. Read More »