Tre Bicchieri and Follow Up Bordeaux Thoughts

 

I am on my way back from the Tre Bicchieri tasting event of Italian wines in Chicago so I thought I’d type in some rambling thoughts.  The Tre Bicchieri is sort of an odd event in that it mixes trade and consumers, so there are Italian winemakers that flew across the ocean to pour their organically farmed native yeast extended lees contact Franciacorta rose for a woman that squeals out “Ohhhh!!! That’s JAMMY!”.  I have no clue if this trip is worthwhile to them beyond maybe getting a stamp of approval from The Cleveland Wine Lads who can swing you a few cases in Ohio at least (but only for your high-end shit).  It’s like most of these wine events for me which are 85% circle jerk and 15% getting good info from producers.  

I’m by no means an Italian wine expert, and not that engaged with the wines of Abruzzo, which was a tough break for me at this event as about a dozen producers were there from Abruzzo pouring their pecorino, a wine which I have little chance of seeing on an exam and almost no chance of buying for my own consumption.  I zeroed in on people making wines that have very murky winemaking and viticulture information online like lambrusco, Cannonau, and Alto Adige wines.  The downside is that the people representing these producers are either from the distributor or maybe reps from some vast portfolio that know even less about harvest timing decisions and disease issues in Emilia Romagna than I do.  I did meet a really great guy making Barolo named Lorenzo from Livia Fontana that clearly lit up when we discovered him tucked in a corner pouring his delicate yet intense Nebbiolo wines.  I think it was refreshing to have someone that knew the little details of what he was doing and where he was trying to go.  Each time I come to this, I leave with a couple wines that raise my eyebrows and I vow to support.  Frankly, there is an ocean of wine out there, and if I meet good people that are making them in an artisan manner, that’s usually enough to be a tiebreaker when I am making buying decisions.

The Lads and I went to a Riesling event on Sunday night where the wines of Hofgut Falkenstien were showcased (16 different bottlings) and then afterwards the wine geek underground of Chicago pulled out a bunch of their showoff wines that they all generously shared.  I bought a Keller Reserve Spatburgunder right before I rolled in as my contribution, and I was thinking that would be a reasonable showing, but I was a mere child in that room.  Bottles included Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile Reserve 2009 and 2010, Nicolas Potel Maxis-Chambertin Grand Cru 2005, Chateau Latour 1995, Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Vielles Vignes 2014 and 2015, Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Clos de la Marechale 2009, and Vincent Dauvissat Chablis Premier Cru “La Forest” 2013.  It was a memorable night to have all those landmark wines cascade across your palate one after another.  That’s a nice little Sunday.  Our problem was we had a night to kill before the Tre Bicchieri event, so that could mean only one thing- Half Off Monday Bottles at Le Bouchon for late lunch followed by Webster’s Wine Bar.

By this point we had seen God Knows How Many hipster Chicago wine lists.  These reflect what the hyper engaged consumers of one of America’s largest markets are presumably interested in and supporting with their dollars.  It’s sort of the usual vibe with these where you have some mutually agreed benchmark producers sitting on the “high priced aspirational choice” selections like Ulysse Collin Champagne or Giacosa single vineyard Babaresco bottles.  Then you have the “cool producers but you can still afford this” producers like Sylvain Pataille’s Marsanny and Raspail-Ay from Gigondas.  Most of the lists are then 50% wines from places no one else in the United States would ever buy like Savoie, Anjou, Chiroubles, Gattinara, Tenerife, and the Ahr.  It’s just like an indie record store in the 1990s where you walk in thinking about buying the new Social Distortion record but you’re worried that the scraggly dude at the register is going to flip out on you because you didn’t buy the LP from the Swedish Garage Punk band you don’t know about because you don’t get the same fanzine he does.  You thought you liked the cool bands, but maybe you weren’t quite as in-the-know as you thought you were 10 minutes ago.

The most noteworthy thing to me was the complete absence of ANY Bordeaux on these lists.  From attending two different Bordeaux trade events so far in 2026, I know Bordeaux is trying.  But man… They are getting their dicks absolutely kicked in amongst the tastemaker crowd.  And if the self-appointed Cool Kids aren’t interested in you, you can swiftly become the wine world equivalent of Warrant in the 90s where snarky cartoon characters like Bevis & Butthead laugh at you and the only people supporting you are the wine world equivalent of the State Fair crowd.  How did things sink so low for what is, in my opinion, the best value red wine region on the planet?

I can rehash the Chinese market crash in depth, but the decision from Bordeaux to cater to the naïve deep pockets of a flurry of Chinese buyers purchasing for mostly the wrong reasons for sustained success caused soaring prices for the best 30-40 labels, gave the green light for everyone else to increase price, and left an entire generation of wine drinkers (like me) on the sideline when I should have been stuffing my basement with ageworthy prestige 3rd-5th Growth labels.  I probably bought a grand total of 6 bottles of Bordeaux from 2003-2015, instead focusing on the rest of the vast world of wine.  Bordeaux was “too expensive” and it felt like they didn’t give a fuck about me as a consumer anyway, so fuck off.  That was much more widespread an opinion than I realized.  Hyper enthusiastic wine consumers moved away from the region as Bordeaux instead cozied up to buyers that had short attention spans and it bit them in the ass.

Their other major problem is they make a wine style that they help shove right out of fashion.  The prevailing thought that gets amplified over and over is that consumers want “fresh low alcohol wines that are environmentally sustainable and offer authentic connection”, which is, of course, absolute bullshit.  A consumer has no idea when they are drinking a glass of wine if that wine has 13% alcohol in it or 14%, sort of the line of demarcation for what is considered low/high alcohol in the trade.  There is something like 17 billion cases of Apothik and Prisoner sold in the USA, so let’s not get carried away with the idea that “fresh low alcohol wines with environmental sustainability” is the answer to the puzzle here.  The issue is that these are tannic savory wines that year after year repeat their basic profile, so it’s hard for excited wine buyers that are always looking for “new” things to shout from the rooftops like they just discovered that Saint Julian has good wine coming from it.  It’s a dependable warhorse of a wine region that has to hit the gym, get a new haircut and buy some new clothes to get people talking.

The region is making a nod in that direction but it seems a little clumsy and forced.  I have tasted a few producers framing their wines as “new generation” by embracing biodynamics (which is going to be tough with the French anti-copper rulings making it essentially mandatory that they’ll have to start spraying industrial anti-fungals), using 100% concrete vessels to amplify fruitiness, reduce maceration to limit tannins, reduced SO2 use,  and getting natty on their fermentations with ambient yeasts and unregulated temperature control. Are they making different wines than most of the people in their region?  Yes.  Are they better than most of the respected producer wines?  Again, no.  But they are offering a different product, and I suppose that’s something.

The outdated negociant system has created a bubble where the producers don’t know their consumers.  The winery makes the wine, gets floated the money way in advance, the brokers step on the price to give it to the exporter to step on the price again to the importer who adds in their margin from the distributor who marks it up yet again to the retail operation who adds onto the cost to the consumer with one more final markup.  Meanwhile, the people who make the wine and create the marketing effort for the brand don’t know who their consumers are beyond the 5 people psyched up enough to request a visit to the Chateau.  They have no clue who buys their wine and why except for the very top five properties of the quality pyramid who know most of their buyers are rich pricks and speculators.  

The real problem comes not for that 30-50 wineries who are in the top of engaged consumers minds.  It’s the 6500 other wineries making $8-$15 everyday drinking wine, usually at very good QTP ratio, who basically have no market because the top Chateau fucked ‘em when they killed the category with their dalliance with their new Chinese lovers that cemented the idea that Bordeaux Was For Rich People with the inevitable swing to “Fuck Those Guys” in consumer’s minds.  Bordeaux operated like a low supply/high demand business that finds itself in a low demand/high supply situation.  I didn’t spend too much time locked into what was going on in Macroeconomics 101 at Kent State, but I do remember the supply/demand curve and the bald head of my econ professor, perhaps the most boring college professor in the Midwest in the late 1980s.  The data suggests a “correction” or what other people I sat next to on the Red Line train in Chicago that jumped on near where the White Sox play would term as “those motherfuckers are going out of business”. 

There appears to be a VAST amount of inventory of quality Bordeaux clogged in the marketplace from producers eager to move it at the $30-$50 range, wines that just a few years ago would have been gathering dust asking for $50-$85 respectively.  I have been buying Bordeaux again, not from the top estates that flourish in the auction markets, but in the wines that give you the red currant/black currant/leather/earth/old library complexity from producers I have grown to trust over time like Gloria, Meyney, Faugeres, Lafon Rochet and Grand Corbin Despagne.  I can tell you from first-hand experience these wines will drink just fine now, but if you can squirrel a few bottles away for twenty years or so, the dividends will be large.  I’d target vintages like 2015, 2016, and 2019 as those seem to be uniformly good quality.  I’d also recommend buying great deals on “off” vintages from more elevated producers like Leoville Barton, Lynch Bages, Clerc Milon, and Pontet Canet who will still make very good wine due to their brutal fruit selection process and all the bells and whistles of almost unlimited budget in the winemaking process.  Their traditional buyers stay home on challenging vintages like 2021 and 2023, requiring the Chateau to drop prices to get the wines out of their basement and into yours.  For example, I had a 1994 Haut Brion that I got for $75 once that was an insight into what all the fuss was about and well worth the price of admission.  The 1993 Mouton was delicious as long as you opened it early enough.  Just like anything else, when the gazelle out there all zig, you zag.

Bottom line is I have no clue how Bordeaux wins the hearts and minds back of the wine geeks.  They just need to keep making high quality wine and do the hard work of re-telling their story over and over to a new generation.  All the 55+ American consumers they didn’t already win over are gone.  They are spending in Burgundy, Barolo and Napa.  All isn’t lost though.  If you think about it, Bordeaux ticks most of the key boxes for 35-54 year old potential buyers.  They make a tradition rich product, most are trying to at least lean organic, it’s dependable, has a unique flavor profile, and now offers the opportunity of discovery.  Why not Bordeaux?  The wines already are better dollar-for-dollar than most of the ocean coming out of fashionable places like Etna, The Rhone, Oregon and Lower Austria.  They just need to get placed into American consumer consideration.