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A New Way Forward
Innovation is rare in Bordeaux. It has always been a conservative marketplace, slow to change, often too preoccupied with the perpetual struggle between owners and négociants to perceive altering economic and commercial conditions beyond its borders. Sustained by the en primeur campaign, it staggers on from year to year. But from time to time a few individuals try to do something new. Xavier Copel came to Bordeaux in the early 1990s as a trained œnologist and worked for a short time at Domaine de Chevalier before starting a small business as a lecturer and négociant specializing in the wines of southern France. Then, in 1996, he began working with a small number of growers in various part of France, not just Bordeaux but in areas such as Cahors and Jurançon. He was looking for small parcels of old vines on the best terroirs ; he then told the growers exactly how he wanted the grapes harvested and vinified, and was usually on hand to work in collaboration with them. Copel’s aim was to show that little known regions, if taken seriously, were capable of producing great wines. He usually aged the wines in new oak, supplying barrels and other essential equipment such as corks made to his specifications to each grower. The wines were released under the label Primo Palatum and did not carry the name of either Copel or the growers with whom he was collaborating. What he was doing was, in effect, creating a brand, except in this case the brand was not an inexpensive blend produced in enormous volumes, but an expensive, high-quality special release of as few as 200 cases per wine. By 1999 Primo Palatum was still a relatively small operation, producing a total of 4.000 cases, but the wines enjoyed considerable critical acclaim. Whether they were commercially successful for the ambitious but uncompromising Copel it is not possible for me to say. It was remarkable, nonetheless, that he had been able to take one of the roles of the négociant – the development of a brand – and then turn it on its head. |
