We loved our Chablis producer, they were really pushing quality and focusing on a hands-off approach to winemaking but the prices were not on par with the main importers and customers just did not seem willing to pay a little more. Plus, it is a hugely competitive category so, unless you are going toe-to-toe with the big boys, best to leave it alone. Great Chablis is a fine thing but middle of the road Petit Chablis or Chablis Village at around £20 is hard to stomach and I think you can find better value in relation to quality elsewhere. You are finding basic wines, for example, Petit Chablis’, coming in at €8-€10/bottle ex cellar which for a UK based importer, after our high duty, poor exchange rates and all the usual slightly gloomy financials of the current UK wine trade, means (for us smaller importers) selling on to the trade at around £15 ex VAT…for Petit Chablis! This then undoubtedly leads to the question of whether you are getting any value and if the juice in the bottle is worth it. When it comes to Chablis prices, it is a very sensitive subject because on the one side you can tangibly see that low yields caused by frost and other external factors will inevitably drive up prices but on the other side the starting point was already quite high so now, after further increases, the prices seem eye-watering. Prices were going up by around 20-25%, which is huge. Prices for us have seen a large increase from our producer over the last two years which has caused us to stop bringing it in. Have allocations from your suppliers shrunk or prices increased? Be more adventurous – wine is fun!ĭAVID KNOTT, FOUNDER & MD, THE KNOTTED VINE “Young Grüner seems to be sitting smack bang in the spot where a Petit Chablis or Chablis Village might have once sat.” Prices in Chablis are increasing, so it will take time, but consumers will start to look for alternatives. How do you go about marketing/selling these as viable Chablis alternatives?Įducation is key. If it is a famous region they are after, very good Soave sometimes does the trick. If consumers are prepared to look elsewhere, we tend to emphasise the minerality aspect of Chablis and offer Assyrtiko from Greece, Txakoli or Godello from Spain, or cool climate Australian alternatives from, say, the Clare Valley. Chablis alternatives: Assyrtiko from Santorini Other than that, dedicated Chablis customers often want to stick to alternative French wines, so very good Muscadet, Macon and Santenay can often work to fill the void. The one obvious option to replace Chablis with is Petit Chablis. There are alternatives, but the problem is that Chablis is such an iconic ‘brand’ many people are reluctant to consider alternatives. Pressure on pricing is acute with price increases ranging from 5% to 7% compared to 2015, which was already at a high level.Ĭan you suggest a handful of Chablis alternatives from your portfolio? The one alleviating factor is that many of our producers still have 2015 in good quantities, so we can continue supplying reasonable volumes and then go back to normal quantities in 2017. The barrel room of William Fevre in October 2016 – this is normally full of barrels. Have allocations from your suppliers shrunk or prices increased? The scale of the shortage. Another of our producers made a grand total of 60 hl of 2016 Chablis, so sold it as juice not making even one bottle of wine. To be organic in Chablis is quite a challenge in view of the cooler climate and damper conditions. One of our producers who makes organic wines found his 2017 yields cut to between 10 to 15 hl/ha, even lower than those of 2016 and found that the berries had very little juice when vinified– good for quality but a real struggle for volumes, with a resulting effect on prices. Have you found Chablis harder to source the past 12-18 months? JIM WILSON, PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR, HALLGARTEN, DRUITT & NOVUM Dedicated Chablis fans tend to want to stick to alternative French wines. Chablis from the top of Les Clos, one of the best Grand Cru sites, visited by The Buyer, October 2016 Hail and frost have been the biggest culprits with almost every wine producer reporting losses of half of their crop or more. Growing grapes in Chablis has always been notoriously difficult but few producers in this most Northern part of Burgundy have experienced the scale of the problem that has hit the past three vintages. Pushing Petit Chablis, suggesting similar styles of wine, and offering Chardonnay, both from other areas of Burgundy and beyond, are some of the many suggestions offered to help wine buyers find Chablis alternatives and prepare for the Chablis shortage that is about to hit.
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