French Wine Magnate, Bernard Magrez, Wants to Give Bordeaux a Boost
Bernard Magrez, wine magnate, has his sights set on Bordeaux. Read below about the famous multi-millionaire and his plans for promoting wine tourism in one of France’s well-known wine regions.
Bordeaux is set for shake-up
By Marcel Michelson
PARIS, Oct 13 (Reuters Life) – Bernard Magrez was 19 when he started working in Bordeaux wine and built up an emporium which now, at 73, counts 35 vineyards in several countries.
These days the self-made man and “new money” in the close-knit world of Bordeaux winemakers, says that many of the region’s “old money” families have lost the spirit to innovate and adapt to market changes.
As wine consumers become more adventurous, drinking wines from across the world, Bordeaux needs to focus on the top wines and invest in its high class image using wine tourism, aerial rides over the vineyards and posh picnics among the vines.
Magrez advises loss-making producers of lesser wines to get out of the business and pull up their vines before it’s too late.
We have gone through several crises already, cyclical crises. But this time I believe the crisis is structural,” he said in an interview. “Sooner or later we will see some drastic changes.”
For Magrez, many people in the industry have missed some fundamental changes in consumer behavior.
“In the past, a wine drinker was faithful to a small number of wines. But nowadays the modern consumer wants to try out different wines from different countries,” he said.
“A host wants to present a new wine to friends, share a discovery.”
Magrez made it easier for the consumer to find new wines as he put his name on the wines made in Spain, Portugal, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Japan and California. But he has abandoned interests in Algeria and China.
“I am not a collector of vineyards,” he said. But said he could add another two or three.
Magrez worked for wine company Jean Cordier in Bordeaux for three years when, at 22, he bought a spirits firm.
“The sellers were two octogenarians and my bank manager was close to retirement. He had confidence in me.” Read the rest of this entry »
Fifth Edition of South African “Wine Tourism Handbook” Launching in 2010
Experts on South African wine tourism have created an informative and exciting compilation of the country’s many wine estates. Learn what went into the making of this multi-faceted book below:
Fifth guide ripe for the picking
The 2010 issue is also available at major local and international tourism trade shows;www.kalahari.net; leading book sellers; as well as through wine farms and hotels throughout South Africa priced at R110.
This issue has taken the handbook to another level by bringing with it a number of exciting new features such as updated maps demarcating all wine farms; major roads and places of interest for each wine route. In fact, given the size of the Stellenbosch wine route, there’s a map for each of the five sub-routes for 2010. Each map comes with an easy reference guide giving grid indicators; contact details for every farm; and tasting room hours. Read the rest of this entry »
Value seeking leads buyers to malbec
Looks like malbec is making waves all over the world, including the southern coast of Oregon! The following is a newspaper article from The World praising Argentinian malbec for its value and its taste.
Value seeking leads buyers to malbec
By Tom Marquardt and Patrick Darr
Don’t look now, but malbec is gaining ground.
Once grown extensively in Bordeaux, this often overlooked and fickle grape variety has put Argentina on the map in recent years. So how could a grape variety rejected by the French flourish in Argentina? Did the French miss the boat on this one?
Read the rest of this entry »
Book Review: “In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism” by George M. Taber
Journalist and entrepreneur George M. Taber is renowned for his four paragraph coverage of the Judgement of Paris, an epic wine event in 1976 that compared prestigious French wines with California wines. Since then, he’s authored several vino-centric books including this month’s “In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism.”
AP writer Nigel Duara reviews Taber’s new book below.
Wine tourism, on safari or from the armchair
“In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism” (Scribner, 287 pages, $30), by George M. Taber: Thirty-three years ago, George M. Taber set the world of wine on fire with a four-paragraph dispatch about a tasting in France that compared the work of French vintners with those of their counterparts in California. The California wines won, and winemaking in the New World has never been the same.
Taber wrote a book about the experience, “Judgment of Paris,” followed by a second book, “To Cork or Not to Cork,” on the history and controversy of wine corks.
Now, he’s turned his sights on wine tourism, examining 12 regions on six continents in his new book, “In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism.” He begins in familiar territory, California’s Napa Valley, and winds his way through Chile, Italy and New Zealand, among others, before arriving finally at the former Soviet state of Georgia. Read the rest of this entry »
