On Friday July 5, 60 people gathered for dinner at Chateau Kirwan in Margaux for the Fine Minds 4 Fine Wines Conference, a three-day event where the wine industry’s top names discussed the future of fine wine.
The vineyards were cast in a golden light during the sunset as Proprietor Sophie Schyler welcomed the group to the former cow shed turned stunning hospitality space. “Wine is emotion,” she began, sharing the sentiment expressed throughout the conference in Bordeaux. The event covered the usual topics such as how we should define fine wine and emerging wine markets, but also included some unlikely talking points such as global geopolitics and responsible drinking.
Here’s a quick review of the event.
Attendees got to enjoy one of the “Research and Development Wines” at Château Lassègue.
The panel discussions kicked off with an intense discussion around geopolitics and the fragile state of our current political system. It is clear that we are in a period of volatility and instability, and the fine wine world is not immune. Panelist Constanze Stelzenmüller from the Brookings Institute stated “in times like these, clarity is necessary.” In other words, don’t bury your head in the sand.
The following panel discussed the topic of luxury wines with a panel of esteemed wine producers, including Fiona Morrison MW of Chateau Le Pin, Nigel Greening of Felton Road and Toby Bekkers of Bekkers Wines. All the panelists agreed that they did not set out to create a luxury brand. In fact, they all seemed slightly uncomfortable with the notion that they are lumped into this category. The phrase “in vino veritas” seems to capture the shared philosophy of this group – that luxury cannot be built from fiction; it must be based on truth.
One of the most shocking revelations at this year’s event was a speaker on ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment, who shared that in May 2019 the largest pension fund in Norway said it will no longer invest in any companies deriving more than 5 percent of their revenue from alcohol. This could have broad implications on the financing available to the wine industry, and also fuel the negative perception of wine companies being harmful to society. The fund also avoided any investment in the weapons, tobacco and gambling industries.
Interspersed between thought-provoking discussions were fine wine experiences that served as well-timed reminders of the joy that wine can bring. I’m not sure what was more magical – drinking liquid gold at Chateau d’Yquem with CEO Pierre Lurton or tasting the latest “research and development project” from Pierre Seillan at his estate Château Lassègue (which turned out to be a sauvignon blanc from Sonoma). Perhaps Nigel Greening, owner of Felton Road Winery in New Zealand expressed it best: “Luxury is the ability to do things slowly when everything else in the world is fast.”
Chateau Kirwan was one of the venues that hosted attendees.
We live in an uncertain time. If a glass of great wine helps us to slow down and enjoy the moment, then l hope more people discover the great wines of the world.
5 top talking points
1. We live in an increasingly volatile time, and companies hoping to ride out the storm need to actively manage geopolitical risk. Some suggestions from the discussion included increasing the number of channels and markets a winery sells to in order to diversify the risk, and to build agility in the distribution system so that if one market declines overnight, the wineries can switch product to other markets quickly.
2. The consumer is changing, and fine wine producers need to change how they communicate and engage with them. Rather than the overly technical and intellectual descriptions of wine, producers can focus on improving storytelling and visual communication.
3. Authenticity and transparency will become more important. Consumers will demand more environmentally and socially responsible actions from wineries. Organic and biodynamic certification will become the standard, and the wine industry will need to do more to promote responsible consumption.
4. Climate change will impact how we think about provenance and heritage. What we associate with the characteristics of Pomerol today, for example, may be very different from what’s being produced there in 20 years. Wineries are beginning to think about planting different clones, varietals and changing their farming methods, which is sure to have an impact on the DNA of each region.
5. Despite the challenges, fine wine brings a huge amount of joy to many people’s lives!
– Meaghan Qian-Fu Becker, publisher
They’ve never been more relevant to the industry as a whole—particularly as big wine market countries themselves (eg U.K., US, Italy) become unaccustomed sources of political risk.
At the end of the day, it’s all what makes wine so irresistibly interesting—existing as it does right where nature, passion, science, and civilizational trends all come together.