In what state of mind and what assessment of the situation in the vineyard in 2020, do you take the chairmanship of the ODG of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Suprieurs?
Stphane Gabard: We are in a very complicated period, when the health crisis and the economic crisis which results from it, have reinforced the difficulties that our appellations have been experiencing for several years. We must quickly rebalance our production potential, while developing our marketing. We have many assets to conquer or win back certain markets.
Did the crisis distillation make it possible to clear the overstock? What are also the effects of the inter-professional reserve, the downgrading to Vin de France (VSIG) and the reduction in yields on availability in the Bordeaux appellation?
Today, our storage coefficient is not that catastrophic. The outputs, although down, are rather better than the projections made during the first containment (3.9 million hectoliters of outputs, for a forecast 3.3-3.5 million hl). Distillation removes 500,000 hl, the yields set low this year, coupled with a low harvest (health problem, drought, etc.), the reserve and the additional allocation to VSIG, will allow us to approach a market equilibrium. We are going to be more dependent on the international post-covid context, than on our availability.
In the press release following your election, you indicated that you take a fresh look at segmentation. Could you clarify what it is?
This involves promoting a supply chain of VSIG in Gironde by setting up three-year contracts with fixed prices. The goal, to stop producing VSIG in an erratic way, and by opportunity. It is also a question of developing the IGP Atlantique. IGP is on the rise, but IGP Atlantique has never been put forward. If we want to reduce our potential in AOC towards PGI, we must boost this sector by using products with a trendy profile, and by investing in an ambitious promotion and communication plan. For this, we may need to change the rules of our interprofession. Within our AOC, it is a question of redefining and characterizing our segmentation between Bordeaux and Bordeaux Suprieur. It is finally a question of continuing to advance on the project « Cru d’Exception », on defining product profiles and reflecting on consumption benchmarks.
The entire red wine market is experiencing commercial difficulties (linked to social changes and exacerbated by the health crisis), what are the levers for you to activate to get out of this crisis: diversification with ross / crmants, change in product profile? , svrit strengthens for Quali-Bordeaux, modernization marketing, reinforcement of pyramid stratification with VSIG / IGP / AOP, temporary / permanent grubbing up, new distillation?
The Prvert inventory that you made in the question seems to me to be sufficient to work on the future of our appellations. Let’s be pragmatic, there is no solution, but it is the implementation of a series of changes that will allow us to get better.
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