“I love to be with you here today, but I really love to be in the vineyard,” says Hubert de Boüard, addressing attendees at a London lunch centred on Château La Fleur de Boüard, his property in Lalande-de-Pomerol.“Honestly, I would rather be in my vineyard – I am a farmer.”
It may seem odd to paint the co-owner of one of Bordeaux’s bluest of blue-chip properties, Château Angélus, as a humble son of the soil, but you sense with de Boüard that this is no mere media façade. He confesses that viticultural worries – even 40 vintages in – still keep him awake at night.
Besides, de Boüard has more than one reason for perhaps wishing he were somewhere else: the lunch at Bob Bob Ricard City coincides with his 69th birthday, necessitating the postponement of celebrations with friends until the following day.
Jetting in and out of London on his birthday may have prompted a slightly tricky conversation with his wife, but de Boüard acknowledges that such events – in this case, promoting the recently bottled 2022 vintage of Le Plus de la Fleur de Boüard alongside a handful of back vintages and a memorable magnum of Angélus 2008 – are a vital component of the modern wine business. “I spend half of my time in the vineyard and the winery, and half of my time travelling,” he explains.
It’s a division of labour that others in Bordeaux might consider imitating. Asked about the impact of this year’s lacklustre en primeur campaign, de Boüard says it has caused “an earthquake” in the region. “Two years ago, maybe 300 châteaux had a successful en primeur campaign,” he explains. “Last year, it was about 150. This year? Fifteen to 20. There are others that did something, but not so many that had a real success.”
The irony, as de Boüard and other observers contend, is that Bordeaux’s wines, and the region’s strength in depth, have arguably never been better. But that means little to an audience that has lost faith in the en primeur model, stung by release prices that have been tone deaf to market reality.
“Bordeaux has lost that connection with the consumer,” de Boüard says.
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