LeDomduVin: Bordeaux vs Burgundy Series (# 3) - The Eternal Rivalry

 

BORDEAUX vs BURGUNDY
SERIES # 3

Bordeaux vs Burgundy: The Eternal Rivalry!

I recently had an interesting conversation about Bordeaux bashing and the comparison between Bordeaux and Burgundy, which inspired me to create the illustration above and write this post.

We discussed the problems that both regions have faced over the last decade and attempted to compare them, ultimately putting an end to the misconception of rivalry between the two.   

Both Bordeaux and Burgundy have experienced the effects of climate change. 

The increasingly unpredictable weather patterns have resulted in more frequent challenges, including frost, hail, storms, rain, floods, and droughts. These shifts in temperature and conditions, particularly more frequent and severe heatwaves, disrupt the vine's growth cycle, lower yields, ripen the grapes sooner, and raise the risk of disease (such as downy mildew in Bordeaux). This variability has made it more challenging for winemakers to maintain consistent quality and has increased vineyard work, requiring greater attention and vigilance to protect the harvest.   

Both Bordeaux and Burgundy have their own administrative, market & economic challenges. Let's start with Bordeaux. 

Bordeaux has struggled with declining consumer demand, particularly among younger generations, due to shifts in consumer habits, high prices, and changing financial opportunities. It also suffers from its outdated, traditionalist, and aristocratic image, and has significant issues with its "En Primeur" system and classification. 

Bordeaux "En Primeur" wines are overpriced, stagnant, and disconnected from release prices, leading to reduced demand and a flooded secondary market. Recent vintages have frequently been launched at prices that are too high, disconnected from what consumers are willing to pay. 

This overpricing has caused demand to stagnate, with many wines from recent vintages trading at prices lower than their initial release prices, leading to unplanned unsold wine stocks. As a result, rising storage and borrowing costs put financial pressure on the system, especially when stock remains unsold and loses value while stored. 

Despite some late efforts to lower the release prices for the 2024 vintage, the high release prices of previous vintages, such as recent ones (2021, 2022, and 2023), and the price stagnation or decline in the secondary market, have resulted in wineries and merchants alike still having large stocks of unsold wine. Weak demand and unfavorable global market conditions created a situation where buyers are unwilling to pay high prices for these wines.    

The system's reliance on traditional intermediaries, such as courtiers and négociants, is seen as an outdated, lack of transparency model that creates barriers between producers and consumers, resulting in financial strain and alienating modern consumers. 

The system, which sells wines "en primeur" before they are bottled, has been undermined by the availability of back vintages that are now selling for less than release prices, making consumers wary of buying unfinished wines. 

Other issues include the long wait for delivery, uncertainty about the final wine quality before bottling, and a shift in top producers' preferences for direct-to-consumer sales or subscription models, which challenge the traditional model's long-term viability.  

Bordeaux classification problems stem from the 1855 classification's static nature, which fails to account for over 170 years of evolving quality, winemaking, vineyard management, and ownership changes, leading to a disconnect between official status and current quality. Key issues include outdated rankings, the omission of Right Bank wines, market distortions where status and prices outweigh merit and even quality, confusion caused by dynamic classifications such as those in Saint-Émilion, and controversies surrounding demotions and withdrawals from the system. 

The 1855 classification remains largely unchanged, despite significant advancements in winemaking, vineyard management, and shifts in estate ownership, quality, and size over the past 170 years. Many estates have significantly improved their quality, yet their classification remains the same, while some classified estates may have declined relative to non-classified ones. 

The classification also excluded Right Bank wines, such as those from St-Emilion, and other wines from Bordeaux. The staticity of this classification system creates market confusion and can lead to status mattering more than the actual wine quality, causing price distortions. 

Additionally, wine styles in 1855 were quite different from those today, featuring lower alcohol levels and less tannic wines. Bordeaux wine's alcohol content has increased from traditionally lower levels around 12-12.5% back then to modern averages closer to 14%. This trend has gradually been driven by rising global temperatures—especially since the mid-1980s, around 1985 and 1989—leading to more grape ripeness. It has also been influenced by changes in winemaking techniques, vineyard and cellar management, and the tastes of consumers, shaped by the preferences of influential wine critics. 

Moreover, estates have changed hands, and vineyard sizes have increased dramatically since 1855, which, despite overall improvements, has impacted, in some cases, both the quality and consistency of the wines. 

As for the other classifications, while newer, the Graves Classification, established in 1953, revised in 1959, and refined by the creation of the Pessac-Leognan appellation in 1987, offers no quality distinction, listing all classified estates with the same status despite inherent quality variations. 

The Saint-Émilion classification, established in 1955 and revised in 1958, is periodically reassessed roughly every 10 years. The list was updated in 1969, 1986, 1996, 2006, 2012, and 2022. However, it has faced issues with a confusing A/B rating system and controversy over demotions, legal challenges, and even withdrawals by top estates, like Château Cheval Blanc and Ausone in 2021, followed by Angelus in 2022, due to disagreements with the system, which they felt had become a source of conflict and instability instead of progress. 

Some estates, with strong brand recognition, no longer rely on official classifications, further weakening the system's relevance. For example, Château Lafleur announced just a few days ago that it had left the Bordeaux Appellation System and revoked its status as a Pomerol and Bordeaux wine, selling all six of its labels as Vin de France from the 2025 vintage onwards. This move responds to the accelerating impacts of climate change and the increasing restrictions imposed by the appellation system.

Additionally, over the past 25 years, the rest of the world has followed suit in producing wines, with more than 80 countries out of 195 now making their own, resulting in overproduction, increased national consumption, and reduced imports from other countries. China, for example, which used to import countless containers of Bordeaux in the 2010s, is now relying more on its own wines. The problem is that high demand from markets like China in previous years supported increased Bordeaux release prices for certain vintages, but this is no longer the case.   

Climate change, geopolitical situations, financial crises, global inflation, taxes, tariffs, overproduction, and other factors, such as changes in consumption habits and growing health concerns in the young generations, have led to a global surplus of wine and unsold stocks (in both wineries and merchants' warehouses around the world), weakening the market.   

As a result, facing an excess of wine, some Bordeaux producers have turned to diversifying their crops and offering products like zero- or low-alcohol alternatives, more appealing to a younger audience, to meet demand, or, in the worst cases, have chosen distillation or even uprooting vineyards to control their supply and avoid having to shut down.  

The uprooting of vineyards in Bordeaux is being carried out in accordance with a French government-funded program aimed at addressing overproduction, declining domestic and international demand, and shifting consumer preferences that favor other beverages. The program offers subsidies to winemakers for removing vines and repurposing the land. This strategic adjustment aims to stabilize the Bordeaux wine market by reducing supply and refocusing on higher-quality production. 

*******work in progress********

while Burgundy faced challenges with high prices and the perception of artificial scarcity despite its focus on small-scale luxury. 

This led us to consider how Burgundy prices have skyrocketed over the last decade, while Bordeaux prices have plummeted. Yet, as Burgundy wine prices soar, people might return to Bordeaux for better value, which somewhat entertains the rivalry between them.  

Bordeaux and Burgundy are often seen as rivals. The rivalry between them is a centuries-old debate driven by their different philosophies, grape varieties, and winemaking styles. 

Still, "rivals" is a strong word; I prefer to call them friendly competitors because, in the end, they target similar but slightly different types of consumers, collectors, investors, and markets.      

This friendly competition, often viewed as a reflection of the broader French spirit—Bordeaux's bourgeois influence versus Burgundy's more aristocratic, sensual nature—provides wine enthusiasts with a rich choice between power and finesse, structure and delicacy, drinkability and age potential. 

It's a healthy competition where they observe and challenge each other to improve, despite their differences. Because, frankly, there are no two wine regions that could be more different than these two.

Their philosophy differs in that Bordeaux centers on blending grapes to create complexity and structure, with styles like robust Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds from the Left Bank or Merlot-dominant wines from the Right Bank. Meanwhile, Burgundy emphasizes expressing a single vineyard's unique characteristics through single-varietal wines, highlighting the profound influence of terroir. 

Their grape varieties differ as Bordeaux is known for its bold, complex blends, usually featuring Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. At the same time, Burgundy is famous for its elegant, terroir-focused single-varietal wines, especially Chardonnay for whites and Pinot Noir for reds. 

Their terroirs differ as Bordeaux is characterized by more uniform gravelly or clay-rich and limestone soils, and with a weather influenced by a maritime climate and the Gironde estuary, as well as the Dordogne and the Garonne rivers. While Burgundy is renowned for its diverse soils and climates, with ancient monastic traditions meticulously mapping out vineyard plots to capture the subtle and unique differences of the various terroirs. 

Their cultural representations differ as Bordeaux is often associated with the bourgeois, dirigiste spirit, a more structured, serious approach to winemaking. While Burgundy is more commonly seen as representing a more peasant, sensual, and Rabelaisian aspect of the French soul, producing aromatic, full-bodied, and sophisticated wines. 

Their classification systems differ, as Bordeaux has a famous classification system that has long been a standard in the wine world. While Burgundy has a classification system rooted in medieval monastic traditions, highlighting individual vineyards, or climats, which are often smaller and more intimately studied. 

In the end it is a friendly competition as While there is a clear and long-standing rivalry, it is largely a friendly one, with both regions representing the pinnacle of French wine production. Wine enthusiasts can find equally compelling reasons to appreciate both the power and structure of Bordeaux and the finesse and subtlety of Burgundy. 

The choice between them often depends on personal preference and the specific occasion. 

As Dany Rolland put it so well in a comment to my post on Facebook: "There are no real rivalries, but rather stories of tastes, opportunities... and these are two regions with historic, renowned vintages, which therefore fuel all the speculations of language and price, comparisons more than choices... if not cultural ones. This is the diversity." 

Let's hope consumers continue to appreciate both, as both Bordeaux and Burgundy deserve to remain leaders and inspirations in the global wine market.    

********work in progress*******

The post is currently in progress because it’s a controversial subject, and I want to stay as neutral as possible to avoid offending anyone, as I have worked all my life to promote both in my 33-year career.

However, if you're interested, I've already written two or three posts on this topic in recent years on my blog, as it has been a recurring subject for more than a decade.

I thought that the quote from Richelle Mead's book “The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel” (2012) was remarkably insightful and very "À propos" for this illustration. 😊👍🍷

*****work in progress*****

Cheers! Santé! 

Dom

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