question for Alex

[rjsussex]

Alex -

I stumbled across a thread on some other board about Costco's Kirkwood Margaux 05 being Paveil de Luze 05 - not the second wine or some associated property but the identical wine - the 'evidence' being that the Kirkwood's cork reads 'Paveil de Luze 2005'.

If it is the same wine why would P de L want to do this? If it''s a junior relation why would the cork read as it does - and would the latter be legal?

(Am just about to take delivery of a case of the real thing at c£11 pb which sounds like a good buy.)

Thanks for whatever light you can shed!

Richard

[rjsussex]

Of course if any one else can shed light then do please reply!

R

[AlexR]

Richard,

Châteaux have stocks of capsules, corks, and labels which they need to use up.
Any print (labels) or branding (corks) run is impossible to work out exactly.
So sometimes, estates need to use up labels (by overprinting) or corks (by using them even if they don't match the labels).

So, it is not an exceedingly rare occurence for a second wine to have the same cork as the grand vin.
This can be done to use up a stock of bottling materials or simply to save money.
It is odd, but there is nothing illegal about it. What counts is what's on the label.
I agree with you, however, that there is a difference between a clearly stated second wine with a grand vin cork, as compared to
a château name that is totally at odds with what's on the label.

In the same way that négociants often operate on the same market under several labels (DBAs or "doing busines as"), some châteaux
wish to have a different name for a wine whose profile is lower either because it is, in effect, a second wine, or else because the owner sells it at a cheaper price and doesn't want to compromise the château's better-known name.

Sometimes, for large clients, estates do a "one-off" thing i.e. sell a big lot of wine at a knock-down price.
In such instances, it is expensive, as well as a nuisance, to create a whole new set of branded corks for one big deal.
So they just uses the ones they normally do.

However, this inevitably creates some confusion...

Best regards,
Alex R.

[rjsussex]

Thanks Alex!

Will post on Pave de L 05 soon. Very mixed reports on cellartracker...

Richard