“Waiting for A Miracle” In Bordeaux. Demand Is Down And So Are Prices.

Winemaking in Bordeaux is never easy, even in the best of years, yet the region’s promoters always seem to find a silver lining even in weak vintages. So the title “Waiting for a Miracle” of a two-part survey by Wine Lister, a business consultant to the fine wine business, laced with phrases like “crossing the Red Sea,” “stormy weather,” “a difficult situation” and “turning point” comes as something of a shock at a time when the on-again-off-again Trump tariffs have added tremendous uncertainty to an industry based on grapevines that pay more attention to the weather than to international trade negotiations.

Compiled by Founder and CEO Ella Lister, Head of Clients and Marketing Tara Albini and Head of Analysyis Maggie Haan, Wine Lister does indicate that the “murmurs of poor weather conditions and compromised fruit circulating nearly a year ago” were blunted by “meticulous attention to detail in the vineyard and winery, coupled with unrivalled technology” that “averted a disaster.” Declaring that 2024 was a very good year for dry whites and several reds, newly released wines are now more attractively priced, with discounts on the 2023 vintage in the UK down 20% to 30%, along with reduced volume ––this at a time of a worldwide wine glut. French wine and spirits global exports fell 4% last year and a 30% drop in sales volume is expected this year. At auction volumes also fell overall (38%).

Wine Lister’s critics tasted en primeur Bordeaux over a nine-day period to find the wines to be “restrained and vertical in nature, usually balanced, though sometimes austere,” with just 20 wines out of 134 recording an increase in scores. The top rated red wine was Château Latour with a score of 95.75 (out of 100), despite being down 1.5 points vs 2023. Among the top three risers are white wines, with La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc at the top.

The silver lining in 2024 was low alcohol levels caused by cooler weather conditions, with wines often at around 13% ABV or lower, in contrast to growing levels of an increasing number of hot weather vintages. The wines of Saint-Émilion saw the steepest drop.

“Nonetheless, trade sentiment has been somewhat apathetic,” read the report, “with consumers tightening their purse

strings and choosing not to buy despite several wines sitting significantly below current market prices for back vintages.”

The report also takes note that young people, pretty much worldwide, are “largely disengaged,” a trend the industry is struggling to account for and reverse and it will take “a concerted effort from all stakeholders––producers, the trade, and consumers alike–– to ensure Bordeaux retains its prestige and relevance in the modern fine

wine landscape.”

Unanimously the industry knows that prices must drop in order to interest younger people to try wine in the first place, after boom years when the previous X generation (and part of the Y) boosted expectations that wine would increasingly be the drink of choice for decades to come. The result of that boost was that Bordeaux raised its prices, not just for the prestigious premier crus but for those below them. The consensus within the trade said that prices for the Asian market may have to be discounted 45%.

Merchants are recommending wine events that will draw in young people, though their numbers wouldn’t really add up to much. Others suggest that wine tourism should be promoted, and that labels should be modernized, as German wine producers did a decade ago when they got rid of the old stylized Fraktur fonts better suited for a novel by Goethe.

Interestingly enough, while Bordeaux sales languish, Burgundy’s are up 16%, according to the Bourgogne Wine Board (BWB), with the U.S. share totaling 20.9 million bottles in 2024, an increase of 15.9% compared to 2023, representing 17.2% of Burgundy’s revenue, with Chablis and Mâcon leading the pack.

Silver linings aside, the report, which came out in April, does not treat of the Trump tariffs situation, which, after a threat of 200%, dictates a universal tariff of 10%, 20% on wines from France, Italy, Germany and Spain, and 30% on South African. The fall-out from those tariffs has yet to be fully felt. Winemakers have taken to saying their prayers in the vineyards.