Bordeaux en primeur for 2012

The city of Bordeaux is in the grip of a brief, annual fever known as the futures campaign. It is when the new vintage is tasted, notes are published, prices are fixed and the wine is released onto the market, even though it won't be bottled and delivered until the end of the following summer.

The trend for the 2012 release is that a difficult vintage will attract relatively low prices, while fewer winemakers will participate in the market. The 2009 and 2010 vintages were received with global enthusiasm, propelled by the unprecedented interest of Chinese buyers in the very best wines. This fervour, among other things, translated into spectacular wine price increases, especially for the most prestigious crus, which were sometimes sold for up to three times more than the preceding 2008 vintage.

The 2011 vintage, released during a serious economic crisis in Europe, is on the other hand an average vintage: a tight and, in a way, very classic Bordeaux. Even though they were offered at reduced prices (from 10 to 40 per cent, depending on the cru), the wines did not sell out as futures.

And now comes 2012. The economic situation has not improved. Throw prudent Asian buyers into the mix and one can see why some chateaux are refusing to sell their wine as futures in a vintage produced in patchy weather conditions.

"The climatic conditions in 2012 certainly allowed us to make good and even very good wines but not everywhere and not without much effort and sacrifice," explains Denis Dubourdieu, a professor of oenology.

"Marked by a hopelessly wet spring, an exceptionally dry summer and a difficult autumn with a late but rapid harvest, 2012 is the antithesis of early 2011, when summer began in spring, ended in July-August and returned, radiantly, near the end of autumn. 2012 and 2011: two very opposite vintages and different also from the admirable 2008, 2009 and 2010 which enjoyed climatic conditions more typical of great vintages."

Paul Pontallier, managing director of Chateau Margaux, says: "The succession of a very wet spring and a very dry summer was quite hard on the vines. Only the best terroirs survive such conditions. In a year like 2012, the difference between the great terroirs and the others is terribly clear and our vineyards are no different."