Squaring the Cercle

Bringing Bordeaux châteaux together

Promotion has never been more important for the wines of Bordeaux, suffering, along with the rest of the wine world, from a lack of demand. Could collaboration be the best way to market them?

Taking place

There is a lot of wine to sell and producers need an efficient and well-established route to market, which La Place has supplied for hundreds of years. It still reaches across 170 countries and sells about 70% of Bordeaux.

But working through négociants and brokers creates distance between producers and their final customers. Having your wine(s) presented within a portfolio makes it easier to reach a global clientele than selling just a couple of SKUs (stock-keeping units). Few properties, even crus classés, have the staff, funds or expertise to promote and sell large volumes of wine directly across an international stage.

Breaking down barriers
Gone are the days when négociants would not let châteaux near importers or distributors, protecting their precious contacts. The internet has demystified the market, and co-promotions bring winemakers to see clients, creating both B2B and B2C events. People love to meet the person behind the product. Although there is still room for improvement, only last week I heard a story about a négociant being defensive of their contacts, hindering sales.

Properties can now reach across this divide with social media, wine shows, tastings and wine dinners. Bordeaux has embraced wine tourism, even if it remains a limited (albeit profitable) channel for properties with hundreds of thousands of bottles to sell.

Better together
In such a fragmented market with around 5,000 châteaux across 65 appellations, plus co-ops and négociant brands, the budgets needed to build brand reputation are out of reach for most wine producers, with a few notable first-growth exceptions.

A history of collaboration
Bringing producers together to pool their resources is nothing new. Bordeaux has many trade organisations. The CIVB (Conseil des Vins de Bordeaux or Bordeaux Wine Council) and the appellation-by-appellation ODGs (Organismes de Défense et de Gestion) are tasked with quality control as well as promotion and lobbying. These are funded by compulsory levies. Optional joint initiatives have also long been part of the Bordeaux infrastructure.

Classifications also offer collective identity, right and left bank The Commanderie de Bontemps dates from the medieval religious ‘commanderies’ of the Médoc. It was created in its current form in 1949, when Bordeaux wines were also in dire need of a champion. The Graves joined in 1959, and Sauternes and Barsac in 2000. Today 300 major Bordeaux winemakers, brokers and merchants promote wines across 12 appellations through major events in Bordeaux and overseas. Chapters around the world group over 40,000 ‘Commanders’, mainly enthusiastic amateurs and faithful Bordeaux buyers. They organize an important tasting competition for international business schools that remains a great way to reach an enthusiast young generation of future Bordeaux lovers.

Party people
They give great parties. La Fête de la Fleur has long been the most iconic event of the year, started in the 1950s and welcoming over 1,500 guests in the heyday of Bordeaux Vinexpo. Rebranded as the Fête du Bontemps in 2023, it brings the Primeurs week to a close, where châteaux, négociants, courtiers and client rub shoulders with stars and personalities inducted into the brotherhood. Today there seems a disconnect between high-society parties for those ‘in the club’ and the current state of the market. A party is not enough to kick-start a flagging market; it can feel like a hangover from more prosperous times, although people rarely refuse an invite.

The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) was created in the 1970s by a small group of châteaux. Today it includes 132 properties across Bordeaux, under the presidency of François-Xavier Maroteaux of Château Branaire-Ducru in Saint-Julien. Since the 1980s it has been the powerhouse behind the Bordeaux primeurs week, when the wine world descends on Bordeaux to evaluate the new vintage. Since the 1990s, they have expanded across the globe, organising 80 events in 15 countries, bringing together 40,000 professionals and enthusiasts. These travelling tastings by château owners and winemakers are hotly anticipated by the trade and collectors as an opportunity to taste new vintages and meet the producers.

Open doors
In 2000, they embraced the consumer, creating Le Week-end des Grands Crus. After the Bordeaux primeurs trade circus is over, they organise a public tasting, presented by owners and winemakers of over 100 Bordeaux châteaux in the centre of Bordeaux, with vineyard visits, lunches and dinners.

Le Grand Cercle – from Right to Left
Both of the above started with a Left Bank focus, though the UGCB has since spread more widely. In 2002, Le Cercle Rive Droite des Grands Vins de Bordeaux was formed as a group of Right Bank properties, when it was the centre of winemaking innovation. It was conceived and presided over by Dr Alain Raynaud, then owner of Château Quinault L’Enclos,one of the Saint-Émilion properties favoured by Parker, riding the wave of the garage wine movement. The property was acquired by LVMH in 2008 and is now run by the team at Château Cheval Blanc.

In 2013, the Cercle Rive Gauche des Grands Vins de Bordeaux was created, grouping a selection of Left Bank wines. Since 2017, Le Cercle des Grands Vins de Bordeaux (CGVB) has brought the two together.

The difference of diversity
Since its creation, the Cercle has included more ‘accessible’ properties. It remains today a more eclectic selection, from tiny 2-ha vineyards to large estates, across 26 appellations. With 119 châteaux it positions itself as a showcase for the diversity of Bordeaux, with dry and sweet whites alongside the reds.
The Cercle also allows this eclectic selection of properties to present different cuvées at their events, both encouraging and showcasing innovation and dynamism, not restricting them to only their first wines. A subject recently raised with me by a winemaker as a reason for leaving another association.

After 23 years under the presidency of the founder, last month Philippe de Poyferré was elected new president of Le Grand Cercle. With 20 years of wine experience under his belt, his technical, commercial and administrative background runs from co-ops to Grands Crus Classés, and from négociants to Cognac. He could not be taking over at a more challenging time.

Purpose not parties
His first actions have been learning what support the members want in the market. Promotion is not enough: de Poyferré wants to create a more direct, dynamic and strategic approach to events, creating a new group dynamic. His objective is to help each member develop their own image and identity within joint promotional trade activities at home and abroad.
He is keen to develop direct communication with professional contacts, buyers and influencers (critics, sommeliers, wine directors) to support commercial development.

Influence: settling scores
Today, distribution is reliant on critics’ scores. Négociants and distributors rely heavily on points in their selection process. Traditional trade partners’ judgement has been transferred to the critics.

Trade influencers – whether commercial, journalists or sommeliers, are always looking for something new, and this group offers plenty of ‘off the beaten track’ properties and wines to discover, rather than the same names.

Collective vision, individual initiatives
The Cercle is happy to play the collective game with other organisations, such as the CIVB, and to be a team player for a bigger image of Bordeaux across the markets. Creating a successful collective identity, where each property can build a brand, is not without challenges, it can backfire. The ‘anything but Bordeaux’ mentality in parts of the wine world, often sommeliers keen to present something new rather than classics (even if that’s what consumers enjoy). The diversity of the Cercle allows each property to tell its own story, proving you do not have to look outside Bordeaux to discover something new. Encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations with stories from the people behind the product is an important opportunity, now more than ever.

Events and expertise
Sharing expertise amongst members, helping them in new creative projects, both technical and promotional, is important. As is promoting and sharing this talent and the wines of members through trade and press events and tastings at home and abroad all year long offering affordable access to trade events and shows. This year they have presented the primeurs in London and Bordeaux and shared a stand at Wine Paris. In Bordeaux, a Châteaux Talents event this September invites the trade to discover the 2023 vintage and others available for delivery.

Sharing the wines of Le Grand Cercle des Vin de Bordeaux

Welcome to Bordeaux
As well as offering affordable access to events and shows, the team wants to create more direct and long-term links between actors and members. De Poyferré is keen to bring the trade to Bordeaux to experience for themselves this diversity, collective dynamism, individual excellence and innovation across the vineyards of Bordeaux.

The Grand Cercle de Bordeaux is counting on collective action and individual initiatives to bring people and products directly to decision-makers. Offering a vision of diversity and innovation, quality and tradition that will hopefully intrigue and seduce even the most blasé of Bordeaux critics.

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