The 11 most expensive wines in Bordeaux
HEADLINES 🗞
A bumper crop has led to winemakers turning down grapes from growers, highlighting English wine’s capacity conundrum: there’s an insufficient number of wineries to produce wine from the exponential growth of vineyard. (Harper’s)
The UK government plans to change the legal definition of wine to reflect growing demand for low-alcohol and alcohol-free options. Currently, anything below 8.5% must be sold as a ‘wine-based drink’, but the government now plans to lower the minimum abv on all wine to 0%. (Decanter)
The 2023 Cava harvest, marked by prolonged drought across Spain, is ‘a warning about the future of viticulture’, says DO president (The Drink’s Business)
Virgin Wines revenue down by £10 mill. (Harper’s)
ENVIRONMENT
Greener Supply Chain 🚅
A new rail link in the UK will transport wine to a major wine bottler, reducing carbon emissions by 42%! 🙌
If you didn’t know already, a lot of the wine in the UK is shipped from foreign countries in an un-bottled state (in bulk). Previously, this was transported to the bottling sites via road but switching to rail transportation will make the process more energy efficient.
STATS
The 11 most expensive Bordeaux wines 🤑
A new report by Wine-Searcher has called out the most expensive bottles of Bordeaux for 2023 (see image below). Some interesting points:
Availability doesn't effect price in Bordeaux the same way it does in Burgundy, where small vintages led to massive price increases.
The top 11 is split almost equally between the Left and Right banks.
Pomerol never bothered with an official classification system like that of the left bank and St-Émilion, yet the right bank appellation represents the top three most expensive wines from the region.
LEGISLATION
Scientists hit back at alcohol warnings
Scientific and medical “misinformation” is “being used to drive a neo-Prohibitionist agenda”, so says Felicity Carter for Wine Business.
In summary:
In 2023, the World Health Organisation claims “no level of alcohol is safe for our health”.
This is leading to harsh anti-alcohol guidelines in many countries.
The WHO is basing its views on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), which links between alcohol and cardiovascular disease and cancer.
A number of scientists have since “tore the Global Burden of Disease research apart” - saying it fails to paint the full picture. Small amounts of alcohol, so they say, have cardiovascular benefits in some populations.
The greatest benefits may come from consuming wine as part of the Mediterranean diet (those sweet polyphenol compounds that Tim Spector raves about).
Unfortunately, “it takes much more effort to debunk misinformation than to spread it”.
Besides its contribution to culture, wine is also worth $36.4 billion in exports from the EU.
BUSINESS
How involved is SJP in her wine collab?
Decanter chats to Sarah Jessica Parker about her new Sevenly range.
Parker is a shareholder in the business with her Kiwi partners, Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron. The Hollywood actress is “very involved”, inputting on everything from label designs to final blends.
She seems to have a clear vision too, in terms of look, feel and taste. Describing the Invivo X Sauvignon Blanc, she explains that the wine is “not as architectural; it’s not as high and pointy as many Sauvignon Blancs are, but it’s still that grape”.
Since the first vintage in 2019, Invivo X, SJP’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has been awarded a Silver medal and 90-91 points annually by Decanter experts, who taste and rate all wines blind.
SJP and Invivo have launched a second range called Sevenly, focusing now on the low-alcohol category, which includes an Australian Sauvignon Blanc and a rosé blend.
Termed ‘mid-strength’ in Australia and New Zealand, both wines in the Sevenly range are 7% alcohol.
You can watch the Sex and the City star blending in action on Invivo’s YouTube channel.
That’s it for the week! Thanks for reading.