Bordeaux wine is a crowded and fiercely competitive market, with around 6,500 individual producers actively making wine today. The fine wine segment consists of the top 300 or so wineries, most of whom are Grands Crus Classés (“classified growths”), having been ranked in one classification or another. With some exceptions, the majority have been making fine wine for well over a century.
For all their similarities, there is surprising variation among top Bordeaux wineries in the nature, scope and direction of their brand portfolio. Taking inspiration largely from the work of David A. Aaker, I have decided to take a closer look at brand portfolio strategy in fine Bordeaux wine. In this first article, I look at the elements that can make up a Bordeaux winery’s portfolio. The second article, here, looks at how these elements make up the overall brand architecture.
The master brand: Grand Vin de Bordeaux
Every château in Bordeaux makes a flagship product known as its Grand Vin, or “first wine”. This is the wine that bears the name of the estate, including the word “château”. Château Margaux’s Grand Vin is called “Château Margaux”. Château Latour’s is called “Château Latour”. Most follow this convention.
When considering the brand portfolio strategies of the Grands Crus Classés, the Grand Vin is the one common element. A tiny minority of very top estates stop there and produce only this one wine. That is, of course, a strategic choice in itself.
Producers have several other options available. Most also produce a second wine, effectively a sub-brand to the first wine. Some further expand their brand scope with white, rosé, sweet or sparkling wines. Others venture into the mass market through endorsed brands. A few move into new product markets, such as whisky, while an ambitious few opt to extend upwards into a higher-end segment.
Bordeaux second wines
A Bordeaux second wine is typically a cheaper product, made at the estate but from young vines or parcels that aren’t up to Grand Vin standards. Some first growths produced second wines in the 1700s, so they are not exactly a new idea. In more modern times, second wines are closely associated with the late Professor Emile Peynaud. He advocated that wineries produce the grandest Grand Vin possible, meaning strict sorting and selection and the rejection of anything not up to scratch.
In effect, the modern second wine came about as a byproduct of more selective winemaking. While “lesser” wine could be declassified and sold off in bulk, it could also be funnelled into a separate, second wine. This meant higher margins for the producer, which was certainly a plus. It also presented a brand-building opportunity. The producer could extend the master brand downwards with a sub-brand at a lower price point, targeting a wider audience.
Copyright: Château Angélus
The brand may be further extended into a third wine and beyond, provided that the estate has the desire and the fruit supply. Château Angélus, which I cover in more detail in the follow-up post, markets a second wine, Carillon d’Angélus, and a third wine, No. 3 d’Angélus.
When a second wine isn’t a second wine
The idea of first and second wines is well established in Bordeaux though not all producers subscribe to it. Some estates, notably Château Palmer, argue that they do not market a second wine at all and that their would-be second wine is something else entirely. Though Palmer did historically produce a second wine, La Réserve du Général, it has since 1998 marketed what it calls “another wine”, Alter Ego.
“It’s a different concept. I think of Palmer as a classical contemporary painting of the same subject. We start making [Alter Ego] at harvest when we find certain blocks that seem right for the style we are looking for. Although there is no difference in yields or selection, we do adapt the winemaking. So we’ll ferment at lower temperatures than we ferment Palmer, because we want a less tannic, more approachable style. We may add some barrels that we decide we aren’t up to standard for Palmer, but we also sell off quite a lot of our wine in bulk. Now that’s the real second wine.”
Palmer CEO Thomas Duoroux, quoted in Decanter
Le Pin doesn’t make a second wine in the traditional sense, either. It occasionally produces a multi-vintage blend of declassified lots called Trilogie. Exactly where that fits within the portfolio is debatable.
Château Léoville Las Cases is notable in that it produces a conventional second wine, Le Petit Lion, and a not-a-second-wine, Clos du Marquis. The latter is sourced from its own dedicated vineyard, distinct from the plots intended for the first or second wines. Clos du Marquis is positioned as its own distinct brand rather than a sub-brand of the Grand Vin.
Widening the brand scope: Whites, rosés and beyond
Bordeaux is, by a considerable majority, red wine country. Vin rouge is not the only game in town, however. Several high-profile châteaux produce whites, rosés, dessert wines and other curiosities in addition to their top red. These other wines can play significant roles within the château’s brand portfolio.
Grand Cru whites as power brands
In Pessac-Léognan, where the classification system is for wines rather than estates, white wines can play a significant role in producers’ portfolios. Indeed, some estates’ whites are more prestigious and more expensive than their reds. Château Haut-Brion is a classic example, where its first white wine is every bit the power brand as its red. It is, in fact, the estate’s most expensive bottling. It’s the same story across the street at its sibling, Château La Mission Haut-Brion. At both estates, the red and white wines occupy co-driver roles within the brand portfolio.
Image copyright: Domaine Clarence Dillon
Bordeaux Blanc as branded energizer
There’s a variation on that theme. Elsewhere, notably in the Médoc, a small number of châteaux produce “icon” dry whites under the modest Bordeaux Blanc AOC. Château Mouton-Rothschild’s Aile d’Argent and Château Margaux’s Pavillon Blanc are good examples. In the language of brand portfolio strategy, these wines could be considered branded energizers. These wines can create energy for the master brand among influential audiences such as sommeliers within fine dining.
Sauternes produces world-class sweet wine, though a considerable number of its estates also produce dry whites. There’s a convention within this subcategory to brand the wines with the first letter of the estate’s name, such as Y d’Yquem. Offering a high-quality dry white alongside the dessert wines in the portfolio creates energy and additional usage occasions that would otherwise be absent.
Weird and wonderful: Branded differentiators
By its very nature, a branded differentiator stands out among the crowd and provides a boost to the master brand. Rosé is a tiny category in Bordeaux, so when a top estate like Château Haut-Bailly makes one – Rosé de Haut-Bailly – it’s a point of difference.
Though Palmer’s unusual XIXth Century Historical Wine doesn’t explicitly bear the master brand name, it uses portfolio graphics and visual cues to provide an unmistakable link for those in the know.
Sparkling Crémant de Bordeaux is all but unheard of among the Grands Crus Classés, though Jean-Luc Thunevin of Château Valandraud produces one under his Bad Girl sub-brand.
Endorsed brands in Bordeaux
Top Bordeaux wines are expensive, and their pricing is often prohibitive to a great many would-be drinkers. Producers wishing to target a wider market of consumers have several options. Marketing a second wine is a viable one for some. Another strategy that some Bordelais producers use is the development of an endorsed brand.
“With an endorsed brand…the endorser brand represents an organization providing assurance that the endorsed brand will live up to its claims. An endorsed brand…is not independent of the endorser…but it has enough freedom to develop product associations and a brand personality that are different from that of the endorser.”
David A. Aaker, “Brand Portfolio Strategy”, pg. 52
An estate’s second or third wine should come from the same vineyard holding as the Grand Vin, and usually belong to the same appellation. An endorsed brand, however, will usually be sourced from outside the estate, which is to say that the producer has bought fruit, wine, or both, from other vignerons. In Bordeaux-speak, this would be considered a “branded wine” or “négociant wine”.
The archetype for endorsed brands, and branded Bordeaux generally, is Mouton Cadet. It is a particularly interesting and non-straightforward example, because it effectively started its life as a second wine, then transitioned into something else entirely. Today it’s the world’s leading non-château Bordeaux range, an endorsed brand sitting within the wider house of brands portfolio of Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA.
Other notable endorsed brands include Ronan by Clinet, Esprit de Pavie and Michel Lynch.
Case study: Clarendelle, Inspiré par Haut-Brion
Copyright: Domaine Clarence Dillon
First growth Château Haut-Brion belongs to Domaine Clarence Dillon, currently led by Prince Robert of Luxembourg. At the organisational level, Domaine Clarence Dillon is a house of brands whose portfolio includes several prestigious estates and a branded range in Clarendelle, Inspiré par Haut-Brion (“Inspired by Haut-Brion”). For our purposes, let’s solely consider the endorsed Clarendelle brand relative to its endorser, Château Haut-Brion.
Clarendelle, Inspired by Haut-Brion, comes with the guarantee of our unique winemaking and blending expertise. Our wines are crafted by the Domaine Clarence Dillon oenologists (Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion, Château Quintus), a bona fide guarantee of quality.
Clarendelle brand guide from Domaine Clarence Dillon
The Clarendelle range was launched by Prince Robert in 2002, the name a sort of portmanteau nod to his ancestor Clarence Dillon. Clarendelle wines are not made at Château Haut-Brion, nor is the fruit sourced from the organisation’s own vineyards. The connection to Haut-Brion and its winemaking team, however, is explicit. Where Haut-Brion is a specific vineyard site with centuries of history for producing fine wines, Clarendelle is a broad range of products representing multiple Bordeaux appellations and styles.
As the endorser, the Haut-Brion brand lends the Clarendelle range credibility and prestige of which most négociant brands could only dream. Clarendelle competes in a very crowded price segment, and that Haut-Brion endorsement carries a lot of weight.
A caveat on endorsed brands
Endorsed brands in Bordeaux wine have made headlines in the recent past. Bordeaux’s criminal court recently ruled against the négociant arm of Château Maucaillou, an estate in the Moulis-en-Médoc appellation. The company had marketed a wine called Le Bordeaux de Maucaillou, its label featuring a depiction of its château and a very similar design to the master brand. This was not an estate wine, but rather a négociant wine like the above examples. It was decided that this was misleading to consumers, and several people involved paid dearly.
I am by no means an expert on French law, though clearly any châteaux intending to create an endorsed brand should consult with somebody that is.
Extending upwards: Bordeaux prestige cuvées
The second wine is a vertical brand extension, extending the master brand downwards into a more affordable price segment relative to the first wine. Those vertical extensions can also run the other way, with a sub-brand targeting a higher end of the market than the Grand Vin.
This approach is a lot more common in Champagne, where a master brand, like Veuve Clicquot, is extended upwards with a prestige cuvée, such as La Grand Dame. The strategy is rare in Bordeaux, but there are examples. The two best I can think of are L’Extravagant de Doisy-Daëne and Cuvée Madame de Château Coutet. Each is from a classified growth estate located in the Barsac sub-region of Sauternes.
Case study: L’Extravagant de Doisy-Daëne
Château Doisy-Daëne (pronounced a little like “dwozzy-den“) belongs to the Dubourdieu family. The late Denis Dubourdieu was a hugely influential and respected professor at the University of Bordeaux. He is widely credited for his advances in the production of dry white Bordeaux in particular. He and his father Pierre first created L’Extravagant in 1990 following some experimentation in the vineyard. L’Extravagant is made only occasionally now, and always in tiny volumes.
Sold in half bottles, packaged in single wooden cases, L’Extravagant commands a considerably higher price than the estate’s Grand Vin. It is a credible rival to Château d’Yquem’s dominance of the Sauternes and luxury sweet wine categories. This is an excellent example of a brand successfully extending upwards to a higher market segment.
Case study: Cuvée Madame de Château Coutet
Nearby Château Coutet first produced what would become its higher-end offering, Cuvée Madame, in 1922. Its production is painstaking and labour intensive, as explained below, and pays homage to Madame Rolland-Guy, then-owner of Coutet. It’s not made every vintage, and vintages are held back for quite some time before release.
“The effort required to produce Cuvée Madame is completely uneconomical, as it ties up forty workers for a whole day just to produce a few barriques of wine. But it’s a way for the team to show what can be done here if there were no constraints of any kind. And since we produce so little, it has no detrimental effect on the quality of the regular Coutet.”
Philippe Baly of Château Coutet, quoted in Stephen Brook’s The Complete Bordeaux, pg. 647-648
A risk of extending the brand upwards is that the new brand may imply that the original has become inferior. The differentiated production techniques, infrequency and scarcity of production of L’Extravagant and Cuvée Madame address this concern.
Growing grapes for Sauternes is a massive challenge at the best of times, depending so heavily on local microclimate conditions and a succession of fiercely strict, patient selections in the vineyard. With these prestige cuvées, the producers stretch their efforts even further. The strategy is thus particularly, if not solely, suited to the specificity of noble rot sweet winemaking. Producers of top red Bordeaux would likely struggle to replicate this approach en masse. Le Plus de la Fleur de Boüard is one example, from the Lalande-de-Pomerol property of the family behind Angélus. There may be others.
Extending the brand into new product markets
Brands can move up and down, and they can also extend into other product categories. I can think of a couple of isolated examples. Château d’Arche in Sauternes entered the spirits market with Whisky d’Arche. The Cazes family of Château Lynch-Bages has produced a range of beer under the D2 Route des Châteaux brand. These are relatively obscure and probably not representative of any wider marketing trend in Bordeaux wine.
There are probably two ways that Bordeaux producers have successfully extended into categories other than Bordeaux wine:
- Some large family operations also make wine outside Bordeaux. Such names as Moueix, Lurton and the Lafite and Mouton branches of the Rothschilds do this. Thus their portfolios extend into additional categories such as Chilean, Argentinian and even Chinese wine.
- Others have extended their brands into more experiential marketing, wine tourism, fine dining and hospitality. Bordeaux is not the Napa Valley, but that hasn’t stopped châteaux developing gastronomic restaurants and luxury boutique hotels.