From September to mid-October, there is room for wine fairs. Large retailers and wine merchants offer a choice so vast that it is difficult to navigate. How not to be wrong?
It’s the return of the wines! A real phenomenon that the French love. Proof of this is the 400 million total turnover achieved last year on the occasion of the wine fairs.
This essential event is nevertheless changing in nature. “Destocking and the race for good business in quantity, which prevailed a few years ago, give way to a need for informed discovery and controlled purchases,” says Le Figaro the master sommelier,Jean-Michel Leduc .
It is true that faced with such a wide choice of bottles, some tips are not superfluous.
The most important thing is to not land on the shelves without prior preparation. “If you arrive without strategy, you will probably miss out on good deals,” warns Fabrice Beaugrand, expert to the Bettane-Desseauve guide.
Feel free to peel the catalogs of supermarkets and wine stores to compare offers and identify those that interest you.
To help you, you can rely on the selections of wine guides. The best known are Hachette, Bettane-Desseauve and the Revue des vins de France (Larvf).
Prices too low to avoid
It is also necessary to “plan your budget in advance and stick to it, if possible by establishing an average price per bottle”, advises the sommelier Emmanuel Delmas on his blog.
Would you like to buy a good bottle to drink in the year, for parties or for a birthday, expand your cellar with a wine to keep or opt for “a small wine pleasure” to drink occasionally? Answering these questions will direct you more precisely to certain wines and vineyards.
It is better to avoid the prices too low and to count rather around 10 € for a wine of character . Good surprises are more common in small appellations than in large volumes of production.
On the label, can we trust the medals of the competitions? “They are not an official guarantee of quality,” said Larvf , but the award-winning wines were certainly appreciated by a jury. It remains to be seen if you will have the same tastes!
You can, on the other hand, rely on the vintages by favoring the most recent ones .
2015 was successful in all the vineyards and 2016 has a good homogeneity. As for 2017, Larvf announces “very high quality for Beaujolais and Bordeaux whites”.
To be served among the first, think about the possible pre-bookings on the internet and at the inaugural evenings of major retailers.
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