28th May 2024 – ARENI Global’s fourth episode of Inside La Place de Bordeaux discusses a pivotal moment in the history of La Place: the exact moment when the fine wine market became a truly international fine wine market.
Twenty years ago, wines from countries like Chile, Argentina and Australia accounted for less than one half of one percent of the global fine wine trade altogether — despite the presence of Almaviva and Opus One on La Place.
But all that changed in 2010, towards the end of the global financial crisis. The rise of less expensive airfares due to cheap oil prices, and more affordable accommodation options like Airbnb led to the rise of gastrotourism with its focus on visiting the best restaurants in the world. At the same time, both executives and tourists alike started visiting premium wineries directly – and they wanted to experience these wines again once they got back home. By 2016, approximately 30 million bottles of foreign wines were being consumed in France, a figure that wouldn’t have seemed possible just ten years earlier, when “fine wine” in France was limited to Bordeaux and Burgundy and occasionally Champagne.
A greater need for global distribution became clear – and La Place de Bordeaux was in the perfect position to respond to this need.
ARENI Global’s Inside La Place de Bordeaux is a seven-episode series aiming to decode the world’s most famous wine marketplace. The first episode, “So You Think You Know La Place de Bordeaux,” premiered on 8th April to great acclaim, and has already been followed by the second (“What’s The Matter With En Primeur?”) and third (“From Bordeaux To The World”) episodes. The next three episodes will be released before the first week of July.
According to Pauline Vicard, co-founder and executive director of ARENI Global: “In the world of fine wine, we thoroughly enjoy talking, teaching and learning about all things wine. Topics like logistics, supply chain and financial sustainability are indeed less poetic, and a little dry. But in our competitive and highly regulated markets, they are crucial to understand. La Place de Bordeaux is by no means the only way to distribute fine wine, but the mutations happening within this rather opaque and poorly understood system translate fundamental changes in what it means to be successful today and create both challenges and opportunities for the global fine wine ecosystem. Understanding the mechanism of La Place de Bordeaux is not only relevant for estates and importers directly trading with La Place, but for everyone hoping to succeed at fine wine distribution.”
According to Felicity Carter, editorial director of ARENI Global: “Working on the podcast has been eye opening. I thought I understood the fine wine market fairly well, but it turns out there is this extensive, international and extremely important network that I didn’t really know about. Considering the influence of La Place on the world of wine, and its role in shaping the international fine wine market, it’s something that needs to be better known. This podcast series will be a reference for both wine students and professionals for years to come.”
You can access the ARENI Global series of podcasts here:
