The hype surrounding the high prices being asked for the 2000 vintage wines from the top Bordeaux chateaux is potentially damaging for the French wine industry. En primeur prices for the claret grand crus are 75% up on last year but for most in the UK trade they are almost irrelevant. Buyer Sally Easton at upmarket wine shipper Berry Brothers and Rudd said: "Bordeaux produces as much wine as Australia and these wines are an infinitesimally small part of it. This is a lot of noise. Whether it has any impact on people buying £3.49 Muscadet, I very much doubt." Majestic Wine Warehouse chief executive Tim Howe said: "They are a complete red herring. But if the other producers in Bordeaux think because of this their prices are too low, then they are wrong. They have to be competitive with the rest of the world." Sainsbury wine director Allan Cheesman said: "The 2000 vintage is razzmatazz. These are the wine equivalent of antiques. They have nothing much to do with wine. But I think the hype could damage the image of French wine." {{DRINKS }}

Topics