Wine
Without Lavish Tastings, Bordeaux Sells Itself With Discounts, Zoom
Millions of euros are at stake as the wine region must reinvent its annual tradition of en primeur. The wines are delicious. Will anyone buy?
Wine is poured during a tasting of the 2016 vintage Bordeaux primeurs at Château La Lagune in Ludon-Médoc on April 4, 2017.
Photographer: GEORGES GOBET/AFPAt 9 a.m., I was sipping a barrel sample of 2019 Château Mouton Rothschild with Baron Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and managing director Philippe Dhalluin. Naturally, this was virtual: They were in Bordeaux; I was in the U.S.
The wine in my glass was real, though, and it was powerful, silky, and lush, “a rugby player in black tie,” as Dhalluin has described it.