Bordeaux En Primeur: why wine critics think you’re dumb

[This post comes partly as a response to Simon O'Hare's comments on my previous post, partly as an update of thoughts. I want to challenge the notion that En Primeur ratings do not need to include a price and to ask readers to take action with the critics if they feel (as I do) that the En Primeur system, as it stands, is flawed. This is a long piece so I've added sub headings for skipping ease in case one section gets boring.]

Tasting En Primeur

[This blog starts by attempting to address the issue of how people - not just Neal Martin, I must point out - taste En Primeur.]

… If Neal Martin adheres to Parker’s main maxim on the issue of how one tastes (viz. you have to rate the wine as it is before you) then there should be little consideration of the wine’s future development and no consideration as to its producer or its history.

To quote Parker himself:

Judgments ought to be made solely on the basis of the product in the bottle, not the pedigree, the price, the rarity, or one’s like or dislike of the producer.

Parker might think judgements ‘ought to’ be made in this way, but they rarely are (how he or Martin taste En Primeur is for them to tell us – of which more later). To say that the majority of tasters at En Primeur taste what is before them would, I think, be a misrepresentation of what goes on in Bordeaux during the Spring months.

Tasters peering into crystal balls when they give you their tasting notes is almost unavoidable when it comes to En Primeur. Mainly because saying ‘this wine doesn’t taste great now’ is of no service to anyone but historical record. The consumer can do little with this information as it is entirely possible that the wine will taste great once it is bottled, and, if not, that it will taste great in 20 years’ time. Thus while no one can fault a taster for giving 13 out of 20 to Château Lafite or Haut-Brion because it tastes like the rear end of a dog at the time of tasting, they will be ridiculed if, in 20 months’ or 20 years’ time, it tastes great.

Wine tasters know that this is true with some wines (Château Montrose was notoriously ‘tight’ for much of it’s early life) and that other, great wines, can sometimes show badly early on. Thus to avoid ridicule in front of their peers (a group that doesn’t need any encouragement to belittle their brothers), many wine tasters at En Primeur will (a) not taste blind (although it is impossible to taste any of the ‘blue-chip’ wines blind) and/or (b) adjust their scores (consciously or unconsciously) when they know what they are dealing with. A few brave souls taste as many En Primeur wines as they can blind – and stick to their scores. It avails them of very little.

Thus ‘pedigree’ counts just as much – if not more – when wine tasters assess wines at En Primeur. Château Haut Tour Mouton might taste rubbish now but if it’s a Premier Cru Classé or it has been producing great wine since its current owner (a large multinational bank) took over, the likelihood is the score will have very little to do with how it tastes at this very moment.

To which you might ask me: ‘what’s the point?’. To which my answer is: ‘quite’.

Are you a fool if you don’t like Bordeaux?

One thing that also annoys me greatly is that pretty much everyone who writes, publishes and makes any kind of judgement at the Bordeaux barrel tastings believes that people who don’t buy Bordeaux at En Primeur are basically stupid. In fact, they think that if you buy any wine other than Bordeaux you (yes, you) lack the mental capacity to make value judgements when it comes to wine.

I should explain. Critics nowadays are being asked if it is not a problem that they – the consumer champions – are giving scores during En Primeur to wines that have neither been priced nor released (this generally happens a month or so later). The oft-used reply is that this is not a problem because when the prices come out, the consumer can make a judgement on what he or she can afford and what he or she wants, based on the review and the price.

But surely if this were true it would be needless for said critics to publish any prices whatsoever, be the wine from Bordeaux or Piedmont. In fact, why are they bothering to give you ‘good value’ wines or good ‘QPR’ (Quality Price Ratio) bottles if they already believe we can make our own minds up about value. Maybe they should stop patronising us?

Or, if they don’t make value judgements when it comes to Bordeaux En Primeur, does that mean they think people who buy Bordeaux En Primeur are somehow more educated, more sensible, more intelligent than someone who dithers between a Picpoul de Pinet and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc? Is that the point? Are people who like Claret more intelligent? Is En Primeur only for the educated? Is it that if you want to buy wines from any other region than Bordeaux, wine critics think you’re practically incapable of wiping your own bottom because it’s only in Bordeaux that they believe you can use your brain and make up your mind without guidance? Is this – dare I say it – ‘snobbish’ on their part?

Vintage variation

Another aspect of En Primeur that goes very much unmentioned by everyone who publishes their scores is the vintage difference of said scores. Let me put it this way: is 92pts for a 2009 Bordeaux the same as 92pts for a 2007? Does the scale slide depending on the greatness of the vintage? Is it like exam results in that the top 20% is an A grade, regardless of content? I know of one respected taster who admits that 18/20 in one year is not necessarily the same level as 18/20 in another.

I frequently lambast the entire En Primeur circus at the level of the Bordeaux châteaux and their business channels but I also wonder if it is also time to ask of every taster some very pertinent questions.

Ask them all openly and make them all respond (or shame on them). After all, they are meant to be our champions and, while the likes of Robert Parker might hesitate to ‘collude’ with other journalists in refraining from publishing his scores until prices are released, there is no excuse for not responding to legitimate queries from the consumers they are meant to represent.

Email your critic

Copy and paste the lower section and send it to any taster whose scores you follow at En Primeur:

1. When tasting wines En Primeur are your ratings purely reflective of the sample before you, irrespective of which chateau it came from, who made it, what its history is and what the vintage is? Do you believe it is possible to taste this way at En Primeur?

2. Do you always try to taste the wines blind? [Understanding, obviously, that top Chateaux do not permit wines to be tasted blind]

3. If you answered yes to the first question but no to the second, please explain your position. Answers along the lines of ‘I am not swayed by labels’ will not do.

4. Are your ratings consistent year-on-year, irrespective of vintage style, etc (i.e. is a 90pt wine in 2007 of the same quality as a 90pt wine in 2009)? If you answered ‘yes’ to question 1, it is assumed the answer to this question is also ‘yes’.

5. Why do you allow your wine ratings to be published before you know the price of what you are assessing?

6. Would you rather publish all your wine reviews without mentioning any prices? (In other words, do you believe your personal assessment of good/bad value wine is pointless and of no use?)

7.a Do you think that creating demand before a wine has been given a price favours the producer over the consumer?

7.b. Conversely, do you think that giving a bad mark to a wine before you know its price is unfair to the producer?

8. Do you believe the En Primeur system, as it stands, is the best possible method of selling Bordeaux wines to the consumer? Why?

9. Do you – or would you prefer to – taste all the En Primeur wines in the same way (i.e. all at the château itself)?

10. If you could change one thing about En Primeur, what would it be?0.