Douro table wine en primeur is launched [Harpers #6312]

[Mario Ferreira]

Harpers Magazine, issue 6312, December 7, 2007.
£3.95 http://www.harpers.co.uk

Douro table wine en primeur is launched

page 8

A wine merchant has launched the UK’s first en-primeur offer of table wines from the Douro, claiming top Bordeaux wines are pricing customers out of the market.

Shrewsbury-based Tanners has previously only offered Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhône wines, but now stocks Quinta do Passadouro, do Noval and Symington Estates, among others.

John Melhuish, fine wine manager at Tanners, told Harpers: “Portugal offers value for money. You’d pay twice as much if you wanted a similar quality from Bordeaux. Bordeaux has gone beyond people’s pockets.”

Simon Field, wine buyer at Berry Bros and Rudd, agreed: “Bordeaux is a struggle to afford and it’s not going to come down. There may be a constituency who look elsewhere, especially those who want to buy wines for consumption.”

Tanners admitted the offer was “a bit of an experiment” but has already sold 80% of its stock. It has no plans to offer en-primeur wines from other regions. Melhuish said: “Most of [these] companies are Port houses so they know how it works. I’d be a bit uncomfortable ordering 100 cases from Chile en-primeur.”

Nick Oakley, president of the UK Association of Portuguese Wine Importers, said: “That Portugal is lining up alongside the world’s great wines in this way is fantastic, not just for the Douro wines concerned but for Portugal in general.”