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"Bordeaux is the area where the cheapest wines in the world are produced." Please, please, pay attention to the quotation marks and endings. This is a quotation. If I had made this claim myself, I would probably henceforth be classified as insane in wine matters. But what is written here between quotation marks is the quote of a Bordeaux connoisseur who, as a merchant - and as he himself says: "Bordeaux freak" - has been travelling to the Bordelais for 30 years to buy the latest vintage every spring. This year he tasted more than 600 wines. His conclusion: "Not all Bordeaux is the same... I am even of the opinion that nowhere are there such good wines at such good prices as in Bordeaux."

Bordeaux - capital of expensive and inexpensive wines (Photo: P. Züllig)

A bold statement! I would simply relegate it to the realm of clumsy advertising pandering if I didn't know the serious wine merchant for many years and trust his wine knowledge and judgements. His claim sounds almost adventurous in view of the fact that at the same time he offers Pétrus 2012 for 1550 francs (one bottle!) in his brochure. Even a Trotanoy (Pomerol) comes to just under 200 francs per bottle.

Somewhat contrite, I put the subscription catalogue away. Wastepaper in the jargon: "We were still able to find a few bottles of... for our best customers. at 237 euros (gross, per bottle). Get in touch while they are still not sold out. The demand is huge!" But this is written by another wine merchant, not my guarantor. But what is correct now? Bordeaux: cheap or incredibly expensive? 100 and (much) more francs or euros for a bottle, can one still speak of "cheap wines"?

Which wine lover would not want to be at home there? (Photo: P. Züllig)

In the non-bold print of the catalogue I find a remarkable statement, well understood by a wine merchant who once called his company "Cave Bordelaise": "The times when the Premier Crus were still the drawing cards of Bordeaux are so long gone that I can hardly remember them. The only astonishing and rationally hardly comprehensible fact is that the price differences between the high-class and lesser-known wines have increased at least tenfold since then. This, schizophrenically, although the differences in quality have become smaller and smaller." This is in line with my experience. Nevertheless: the big names are bought - no matter how much they cost. Without them, you don't have "real Bordeaux" in your glass. It is not only the Chinese and Russians who think this way (and act accordingly), it is also the Bordeaux friends here, among us. Invite wine friends to a Bordeaux evening with the best wines from their cellar that don't have a big name: Grand Verdus, for example, le Reysse, Trocard Monrepos or even the idiosyncratic Queyroux. Even the Roc de Cambes, which has long been known (in connoisseur circles), hardly earns you applause, as it "only" comes from the Côtes de Bourg, far away from "where the best wines" from Bordeaux come from.

A few stone's throw from the cemetery - Château Margaux (Photo: P. Züllig)

They have to be names, big names: Latour, Mouton-Rothschild, Lafite-Rothschild, Ausone; from the second row: Léoville Las Cases, Cos d'Estournel, Fleur-Pétrus; or from the garages: Le Pin, Hosanna, Valandraud. "Premiers - only for the rich now?" This question is repeated again and again, on every blog, in every wine magazine. Even falling prices do not blur the impression. Bordeaux is super expensive. But: "Bordeaux has long since ceased to consist of the Crus Classés. Since the 2005 vintage at the latest, they have only played a minor role," says my source. That may be true for the Bordeaux trade. But in people's minds, the names of the greats have taken root, deeply anchored, even though they are not always really great, at least not that much greater than the small ones.

The vocabulary of Bordeaux wines would have to be rewritten. New names - today often still true tongue twisters for the Bordeaux faithful - are appearing: Moulin Haut-Laroque, d'Escourac, Cote de Baleau, Thieuley, Loustauneuf, Fonréaud, Brisson, Clos Marsalette, Sequin.... They are good, sometimes even almost as good as the famous crus from Pauillac, Margaux, Saint-Julien, Estèphe, Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Graves... But only almost, and therein lies the problem. A myth cannot be conjured away by rational arguments. It is the myth of the "last little better", the incredibly expensive centimetres before the finish line. It is the two, five, ten percent "better" that is marketed and continues to shape the Bordeaux cliché.

Wine shop in Saint-Émilion - big names attract (Photo: P. Züllig)

"As a wine lover, the prices of the 1er Crus and some Super Seconds, Pomerols or Émilions also hurt me a lot; these wines are almost unattainable status symbols and objects of speculation for a few," writes one of the most important Bordeaux importers in Germany. But he also has customers who (can) pay the painful prices. And so the trader's balancing act then arises, with which he reassures his good customers: "But don't you also like to eat chanterelles or porcini mushrooms - despite white truffles for 4000 euros a kilo? Don't you also drive a car - despite the prices for Maybach and Bugatti? Don't you also read the time on your wrist - despite IWC, Glashütte etc.? Porcini mushrooms are also a treat, and even a Maybach 'only' gets you from A to B, and the day has 24 hours on every watch. Nevertheless, there are differences. And that's a good thing. After all, does every wine have to be accessible to every wine lover?"

So this is how the myth of the last centimetre of "better" continues to be cultivated and the big business of a few big producers is maintained. Anyone who believes that Mouton-Rothschild, Yquem, Lafite, Canon, Pape-Clément, even Pétrus - these are all particularly committed small producers (quote: "Mass cultivation for coveted food is not possible at Latour or Lafite") is thoroughly mistaken. It is very possible. Mouton-Rothschild provides the best proof - among others - with its Mouton-Cadet: business not only with the "great wines", but also with mass production (under the Mouton seal). Behind all the names are financially strong companies, some of them not from the wine sector at all, who are primarily concerned with profit, with reputation, with proving that they can compete with the "greats of the world". Also in the luxury wine sector.

The Garonne also separates the wine regions - on the left the Médoc% on the right the lesser known regions such as Côtes de Bourg% Côtes de Blaye etc. (Photo: P. Züllig)

Wherever Bordeaux is still about wine - and not just about business - my guarantor, the merchant, is right. Hardly in any other wine region are there as many good and inexpensive wines as in Bordeaux. But only a few are interested in these, since they are (original quote) "wines for beginners". I will buy Bordeaux again if there are also "wines for dropouts".

Cordially
Yours/Yours

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