The Bordeaux Wine Council (CIVB) brings a message of diversity and unity to Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024

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The Daily spoke with CIVB President Allan Sichel in an exclusive interview about Bordeaux’s strategy and the importance of collective energy and innovation for future of the region’s wines.

What can you tell us about the collective energy that unites Bordeaux winegrowers and merchants? Why is this so important today?
The collective energy of Bordeaux is powerful. The challenge is to bring it together. There are a very large number of players, including 5,300 winegrowers and just over 300 wine merchants. The different types of protected designations, of farms (large ones and small ones), the family structures…each family has its own philosophy, its own vision of the future, its own particular environment, and it’s the same thing for merchants and trading companies. Some of them are very big, with billions in sales, while others have just a few tens of thousands of euros in sales, and are more or less specialised. No two are the same. The collective energy comes from this diversity, a diversity that gives us a richness in terms of product typology and philosophy. Our challenge at the CIVB is to create a collective that can be heard by consumers and purchasing decision makers. We’re a major exporter, so that puts us even more under the spotlight of international upheaval. In difficult times, it’s in our best interests to pull together and work together. The point of collective energy is to pool our efforts, pool our resources and send a strong signal to the market, be it the consumer or the retailer, in France or abroad.

With over 5,000 winegrowers and 300 wine merchants, Bordeaux wines are extremely diverse. How do you manage to express all these singularities?
Bordeaux is strongly associated with red wine, but there are also white wines, rosé wines and sparkling wines, which are a new category that is growing quickly and enjoying enormous success. Our challenge is that there are so many different cases and we can’t explain the uniqueness of each one. If we try to do this, we will end up with a very mixed, unclear message. We would rather say that Bordeaux is a source of great diversity and illustrate this diversity with specific cases to encourage the consumer, the wine lover, to take an interest in Bordeaux. We want to encourage the consumer to discover Bordeaux because there is always something new to learn. We can’t communicate on the uniqueness of each and every wine, but we certainly want to emphasise diversity. Our campaign “Ensemble Tous Singuliers” is a perfect illustration of this. Everyone is an individual, everyone is different, but together we are Bordeaux. This campaign and communication are represented by 100% local figures (e.g. winemakers, wine merchants, cellar masters, bartenders, chefs etc.)

As you mentioned, Bordeaux is traditionally known for its red wines. Today, Bordeaux wines also include dry white wines, sweet white wines, rosés and even crémants. What is the public’s reaction to this message?
It’s interesting because they’re often surprised. They don’t associate Bordeaux with dry white wines, for example, or light rosés. Consumers are happy to discover these products, especially as they’re very accessible in terms of product profile, when you taste them, they’re pleasant, easy-drinking, very aromatic, well-balanced wines that are affordable. These wines are not priced like the Bordeaux grands vins, which can be very expensive. Here, we’re talking about wines at 10-15 euros, and consumers are surprised by the quality of the wines they can get for that price. We’re happy to showcase this diversity of products and, above all, show consumers that we have wines that they’ll like and that are suitable for all occasions.

Bordeaux wine combines a long tradition with a resolutely forward-looking vision. How do you manage to maintain this balance?
We make a lot of reference to tradition in Bordeaux, but it’s been said that tradition is simply the accumulation of past innovations that have worked and that we have kept. Bordeaux is never static, it is constantly adapting to its environment, whether this is climatic, social or economic. This is because Bordeaux is in contact with the market, and just like any other industry, if you stay away from your market, you end up no longer being adapted to it. So this is out of necessity.

It’s also true that Bordeaux is a region that attracts new people from the exterior: winegrowers, merchants, people who come with the desire to settle in Bordeaux with new ideas that stimulate this perpetual rebirth. It’s organic in terms of the population that makes up the Bordeaux wine industry, which is constantly renewing itself. There are also shareholders, and I’m thinking of our collective industry shares, where we fund research at the cost of several million euros every year, in collaboration with local and sometimes foreign scientific institutes, to prepare for the future and ensure that we can continue to adapt.

What message does Bordeaux wine want to communicate to visitors to Wine Paris & VinExpo Paris this year?
Bordeaux wine is determined to meet the needs of the market. We’re going to demonstrate that we’re aimed at young consumers, that we have a wide range of products; different colours, types and product profiles, that are suitable for unstructured consumption with a hamburger, a pizza, Asian cuisine and above all for very relaxed consumption moments, outside of meals too, in wine bars etc. The international message, “join the Bordeaux crew”, means come and join the team and we’ll do some great work together.

On the path to carbon neutral

Bordeaux was one of the first wine-growing regions to draw up its carbon footprint back in 2007, and now the CIVB is on its third carbon footprint having cut 30% of emissions so far. The goal is to be 54% lower by 2030 and 75% lower by 2050, with an increase in carbon capture of 25% by 2050. The council is putting tools in place to help operators measure their carbon footprint and take action to reduce their impact. The plan for reducing the carbon footprint is based on five strategic axes (glass and packaging; wine growing practices; freight; energy efficiency; carbon capture, storage and recovery).

CIVB launched a collective system, the Environmental Management System, intended to help winegrowers and merchants adopt a virtuous approach to all production operations. Recently, CIVB has also broadened the scope of this system, previously more focused purely on environmental protection, to inclue the council’s “smaller-world approach to tomorrow” which encompasses a 360-degree approach to CSR (corporate social responsibility) as well as environmental responsibility too. CIVB president Allan Sichel states that the system is designed “to involve as many operators as possible in a virtuous process.” Today, 1,000 companies are involved in the Environmental Management System, and about a hundred in the Bordeaux Sustainable Impact CSR programme, which was launched in 2020.

Hall 6 / Stand C 315

Photos : © Vins de Bordeaux – Guillaume Bonnaud 

Légende de photos groupe : Bordeaux winemakers and wine merchants, Join the Bordeaux Crew
Légende à mettre au QR code: Discover Join the Bordeaux Crew film (garder Join the Bordeaux Crew en italique)