Book review: Vinobusiness
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:16 am
I read a book called Vinobusiness, by Isabelle Saporta this past weekend.
It was just been published by Albin Michel and exists only in French. It costs 19 euros.
The thesis of the book is that there is something rotten in the state of France, especially in Bordeaux and Champagne…
It is important to say at the outset that the author set out to write an exposé and clearly has an axe to grind. The person who sets out to seek dirt usually finds it… As for my own bias, I live in Bordeaux and think it is the best wine in the world (pinotphiles, need read no further). But I am not connected with the wine business except peripherally.
A bit like the 2013 vintage, Vinobusiness can be said to be uneven. It is a quick read, and seems more like an extended magazine article than a book. The polemical nature can be ridiculous at times - as though we didn’t know that the owners of prestigious châteaux were part of a privileged social class, and that life isn’t fair… Many of the comments are catty and petty, such as the way people dress. While it is hardly a must for anyone’s wine book library, the book does touch on several points worth raising.
These involving investigative reporting (with varying degrees of professionalism) on the Saint-Emilion classification, the supposed land grab in Pomerol by the Moueix family, and the (mis)appropriation of planting rights in Champagne. The rest of the book holds together rather poorly.
The author is French, and thus should know better than to equate Bordeaux with just the great growths (only 5% of production!). And yet, this is all she speaks about, in a section on Bordeaux that easily takes up two thirds of the book. Of course, few of the people she writes about have any redeeming qualities… Public Enemy Number one is Hubert de Boüard de la Forest, co-owner of Châteu Angélus. While many of the comments the author makes about him are bitchy and shallow (she makes fun of his name several times, and calls him the “Sarkozy of the Vines”), she is dead right in criticizing the man’s manipulation of the most recent classification in Saint-Emilion. De Boüard should never have been involved as he was in establishing this since his own wine, Château Angélus, was concerned – and ended up being promoted… In short, he was both judge and jury, and stood to earn a great deal of money by being promoted (Saporta figures going from “B” to “A” immediately put about 2 million euros in his pocket). Furthermore, de Boüard is a consultant to a host of other estates. The book says that he told potential clients he was able to pull strings to promote them to grand cru status. That is a very serious accusation, and explains why de Boüard suing the author.
The criteria for the Saint-Emilion classification are roundly criticized – as they should be. For instance, quality as perceived during blind tastings counts for 50% of the total score for the grands crus classés, but just 30% for the premiers crus classés. This is absurd as are the points given – or deducted – according to whether the estate has a parking lot… The 2012 classification is being once again attacked in court. If any of the litigants win, that will surely be the definitive end of it.
Isabelle Saporta denounces the bling-bling side of Bordeaux. She has a point. I visited three new cellars in Saint-Emilion last week: La Dominique, Angélus, and Pavie, all monuments to the male ego. Pavie is the most impressive – and the most controversial. It is referred to as “Las Vegas” by the locals. It has the feel of a luxury hotel rather than a wine cellar and there is, sadly, something soul-less and antiseptic about it despite the millions that were spent. I told a woman who welcomed me at the château that a Burgundian vigneron would have very conflicting sentiments: admiration and a certain amount of jealousy, but also a feeling of disgust at the excessiveness of it all.
The author of a previous muckraking book on agriculture, Isabelle Saporta goes out on a limb when she attacks the use of pesticides by winegrowers. This is not really the subject of her book, although here criticism of fat subsidies received from the French government and the European Union by very wealthy estates is more to the point. The rotten influence of money is one of the book’s leitmotifs. But she is barking up the wrong tree when she implies that big companies or multinational groups are incompatible with making fine wine. She is also too stuck on a romantic notion of wine production and is easily scandalized by things she shouldn’t be. Example: her cynical description, tainted with envy, of the Fête de la Fleur, an important social occasion for the wine trade and their guests.
The book features a great deal of gossip and, despite footnotes, a number of undisclosed and unsubstantiated sources.
The Parker/Rolland syndrome is once again explored. Curiously though, the man from Monkton is mostly let off the hook. Not so for the INAO, which is lambasted and portrayed as totally subservient to commercial considerations seeing as the board members are also in the very industry they are meant to regulate (much like the American financial sector). The example of what is happening in Pomerol is instructive. I had heard that the INAO was forcing estates in Pomerol, however small, to have their own cellars – even if many growers have cellars in a neighboring appellation and don’t have the room or the money to build a cellar on their 2 or 3-hectare estates. Pomerol producers appealed twice to the courts to rescind this obligation, and won both times. But, in the end, they will have to comply in the next decade. This “necessity” was backed by the winegrower’s association, in which the firm of J.P. Moueix plays a major role. Saporta says that the association was manipulated so that producers down the line will decide to sell rather than go to the expense and bother of building a new cellar for a postage stamp size vineyard – at which time, Moueix will be there waiting, with an open checkbook… The charge, once again, is serious. I do not know to what extent it is true, or if Moueix, like de Boüard, will take the author to court. As for legal proceedings, de Boüard will also be tried in criminal court for prise illégale d’intérêts, or illegal taking of interest for his role in the classification and the promotion of his own wine.
Of course, most lovers of traditional Bordeaux will never consider Angélus and Pavie on an equal footing with Ausone and Cheval Blanc, whatever the classification says.
While most of the rottenness, supposed or real, in Vinobusiness takes place in Bordeaux, there is also a section on Champagne. This deals primarily with the enormous extension of the appellation due to take place (with some land, apparently far better suited to growing wheat than vines…) in the coming years and the behind-the-scenes jockeying by the négociants, especially Vranken.
Vinobusiness picks up where Mondovino left off. Indeed, Isabelle Saporta intends to make a film based on her book later this year… Her writing is jaundiced and lacks focus but, like Mondovino, it is probably healthy for someone to set the cat among the pigeons from time to time…
Best regards,
Alex R.
It was just been published by Albin Michel and exists only in French. It costs 19 euros.
The thesis of the book is that there is something rotten in the state of France, especially in Bordeaux and Champagne…
It is important to say at the outset that the author set out to write an exposé and clearly has an axe to grind. The person who sets out to seek dirt usually finds it… As for my own bias, I live in Bordeaux and think it is the best wine in the world (pinotphiles, need read no further). But I am not connected with the wine business except peripherally.
A bit like the 2013 vintage, Vinobusiness can be said to be uneven. It is a quick read, and seems more like an extended magazine article than a book. The polemical nature can be ridiculous at times - as though we didn’t know that the owners of prestigious châteaux were part of a privileged social class, and that life isn’t fair… Many of the comments are catty and petty, such as the way people dress. While it is hardly a must for anyone’s wine book library, the book does touch on several points worth raising.
These involving investigative reporting (with varying degrees of professionalism) on the Saint-Emilion classification, the supposed land grab in Pomerol by the Moueix family, and the (mis)appropriation of planting rights in Champagne. The rest of the book holds together rather poorly.
The author is French, and thus should know better than to equate Bordeaux with just the great growths (only 5% of production!). And yet, this is all she speaks about, in a section on Bordeaux that easily takes up two thirds of the book. Of course, few of the people she writes about have any redeeming qualities… Public Enemy Number one is Hubert de Boüard de la Forest, co-owner of Châteu Angélus. While many of the comments the author makes about him are bitchy and shallow (she makes fun of his name several times, and calls him the “Sarkozy of the Vines”), she is dead right in criticizing the man’s manipulation of the most recent classification in Saint-Emilion. De Boüard should never have been involved as he was in establishing this since his own wine, Château Angélus, was concerned – and ended up being promoted… In short, he was both judge and jury, and stood to earn a great deal of money by being promoted (Saporta figures going from “B” to “A” immediately put about 2 million euros in his pocket). Furthermore, de Boüard is a consultant to a host of other estates. The book says that he told potential clients he was able to pull strings to promote them to grand cru status. That is a very serious accusation, and explains why de Boüard suing the author.
The criteria for the Saint-Emilion classification are roundly criticized – as they should be. For instance, quality as perceived during blind tastings counts for 50% of the total score for the grands crus classés, but just 30% for the premiers crus classés. This is absurd as are the points given – or deducted – according to whether the estate has a parking lot… The 2012 classification is being once again attacked in court. If any of the litigants win, that will surely be the definitive end of it.
Isabelle Saporta denounces the bling-bling side of Bordeaux. She has a point. I visited three new cellars in Saint-Emilion last week: La Dominique, Angélus, and Pavie, all monuments to the male ego. Pavie is the most impressive – and the most controversial. It is referred to as “Las Vegas” by the locals. It has the feel of a luxury hotel rather than a wine cellar and there is, sadly, something soul-less and antiseptic about it despite the millions that were spent. I told a woman who welcomed me at the château that a Burgundian vigneron would have very conflicting sentiments: admiration and a certain amount of jealousy, but also a feeling of disgust at the excessiveness of it all.
The author of a previous muckraking book on agriculture, Isabelle Saporta goes out on a limb when she attacks the use of pesticides by winegrowers. This is not really the subject of her book, although here criticism of fat subsidies received from the French government and the European Union by very wealthy estates is more to the point. The rotten influence of money is one of the book’s leitmotifs. But she is barking up the wrong tree when she implies that big companies or multinational groups are incompatible with making fine wine. She is also too stuck on a romantic notion of wine production and is easily scandalized by things she shouldn’t be. Example: her cynical description, tainted with envy, of the Fête de la Fleur, an important social occasion for the wine trade and their guests.
The book features a great deal of gossip and, despite footnotes, a number of undisclosed and unsubstantiated sources.
The Parker/Rolland syndrome is once again explored. Curiously though, the man from Monkton is mostly let off the hook. Not so for the INAO, which is lambasted and portrayed as totally subservient to commercial considerations seeing as the board members are also in the very industry they are meant to regulate (much like the American financial sector). The example of what is happening in Pomerol is instructive. I had heard that the INAO was forcing estates in Pomerol, however small, to have their own cellars – even if many growers have cellars in a neighboring appellation and don’t have the room or the money to build a cellar on their 2 or 3-hectare estates. Pomerol producers appealed twice to the courts to rescind this obligation, and won both times. But, in the end, they will have to comply in the next decade. This “necessity” was backed by the winegrower’s association, in which the firm of J.P. Moueix plays a major role. Saporta says that the association was manipulated so that producers down the line will decide to sell rather than go to the expense and bother of building a new cellar for a postage stamp size vineyard – at which time, Moueix will be there waiting, with an open checkbook… The charge, once again, is serious. I do not know to what extent it is true, or if Moueix, like de Boüard, will take the author to court. As for legal proceedings, de Boüard will also be tried in criminal court for prise illégale d’intérêts, or illegal taking of interest for his role in the classification and the promotion of his own wine.
Of course, most lovers of traditional Bordeaux will never consider Angélus and Pavie on an equal footing with Ausone and Cheval Blanc, whatever the classification says.
While most of the rottenness, supposed or real, in Vinobusiness takes place in Bordeaux, there is also a section on Champagne. This deals primarily with the enormous extension of the appellation due to take place (with some land, apparently far better suited to growing wheat than vines…) in the coming years and the behind-the-scenes jockeying by the négociants, especially Vranken.
Vinobusiness picks up where Mondovino left off. Indeed, Isabelle Saporta intends to make a film based on her book later this year… Her writing is jaundiced and lacks focus but, like Mondovino, it is probably healthy for someone to set the cat among the pigeons from time to time…
Best regards,
Alex R.