Page 456 - NEWNORMAL_ANIMATED

NEW NORMAL

Count John Umberto Salvi MW
John followed his father into the trade; he started as a trainee
with Maison Sichel in Bordeaux, and his first duty was to help
with the 1957 vintage at Château Palmer in Margaux, close to
where he lives now with his wife Countess Petronella. After some
years he became Sales Director for Maison Sichel, living in, and
working from, Château Palmer itself. Retired in 1997 „after
40 years in the wine trade drinking every great bottle from
every great vintage and eating my way round the world many
times.“ He also wrote a serious treatise of the development of
the palate related to age and experience. He`s beloved wine
judge everywhere. You must read for yourselves his new book
Count of Wine full of stories and anecdotes.
I have now lived in Bordeaux, in the Medoc, bankrupt, hundreds are for sale and finding no
for 52 years, but for the French I shall always market, and hundreds more are hanging on by
be the “perfide albion”. To show how perfide the skin of their teeth. Worldwide competition
I am I will state that I have finally understood is devastating, because French rules and re-
French philosophy. It is very simple and has 3 gulations make it difficult to be competitive,
facets. 1. Laws are made to be broken. 2. Why prices from Latin-America are so low that Bor-
keep things simple if you can make them com- deaux cannot compete, and now the pande-
plicated. 3. If you do not like my wine you are mic has brought sales almost to a standstill.
either stupid or perverse. Even if they have the money, they are now
To be serious. There is one thing that we confronted with storage problems, which will
must keep in mind all the time when we become more than acute when the next vin-
talk about Bordeaux. Bordeaux falls into two tage must be stored. Life is one long misery,
camps. Those that sell their wines for a great and although the Government has allocated
deal of money and those that do not, or can- very considerable funds, of course it is not
not. All classified growths account for some enough, and there is anger and jealousy be-
5% of total production and the Grands Crus tween those who have received it and those
Classés around 1%. It is this 1% that many who have not. Make no mistake about it, Bor-
people think about when they talk about Bor- deaux is devastated by the pandemic.
deaux. To them the pandemic is a nuisance. The recent approval by the INAO of 6 new
It is a temporary loss of income, aided and grape varieties is, in the minds of many produ-
abetted by the increase of USA taxes and the cers, still something of a joke. The INAO took
fall-off of the fine wine imports by China due a very long time to approve and officialise
to their crack-down on corruption. There is these varieties and in the end they approved 6
a certain amount of anger by the small gro- out of the 7 proposed and did not approve Pe-
wers at the huge, and ever increasing, prices tit Manseng. Note very carefully that it is only
at the top. The late André Lurton was very vo- Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur that have
ciferous about it. They can weather the storm, requested these varieties, as they represent
however long it lasts. As for the majority of over 50% of the total Bordeaux production.
Bordeaux, particularly the lesser appellations Even then only up to 5% of the total vineyard
such as Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, the surface area may be planted with them and the
pandemic is a catastrophic, appalling and de- wine must contain no more than 10%. The re-
vastating crisis. In 2020, many vineyards went ason for them is officially to have varieties that
456