5 Things I Learnt from Wine-Tasting in Bordeaux

I had the good fortune of visiting both family-run wineries and internationally-renown vineyards of scale on my recent trip to Bordeaux. It has opened my eyes to winemaking, one of the oldest businesses in the world.

It was not just wine that I took back on the trip. Here are five learnings that stood out for me.

1)??? Continuous adaptation is in the lifeblood

?Like many businesses dealing with economic and geopolitical uncertainties, the craft of wine-making is highly susceptible to forces beyond the winemakers’ control. While the principles of winemaking have remained the same, winemakers have had to adapt harvesting and production methods – sometimes on a daily basis - to optimise yields amidst erratic weather changes in recent years, from unexpected heatwaves to prolonged winters.

To watch how they have embraced constant adaptation as a way of doing things – both in business and management philosophy - is nothing short of inspiring.

2)??? Innovate while staying true to one’s heritage

?For many of the wineries I visited, maintaining the unique essence and soul of each winemaker – while keeping pace with the modern technology and culture – seems to be how the best winemakers in Bordeaux stay at the top of the game globally.

Everything has been done with the deepest care to detail, in order to maintain the wineries’ distinctiveness in market. From modern approaches to sustainability, proprietary gravity production methods to bring out the richest flavours, art on wine labels that brings to life the winemaker’s unique persona and stories, down to renovations that painstakingly marry the new with the “old”, i.e. matching colour and design of new tiles with ancient tiles dating back more than 100 years ago.

?It reminded me of many top companies outside of the wine industry sharing and living by this ethos.

3)??? Secret sauce is the “blend”: teamwork makes the dreamwork

Wines from the region are renowned for being the “Bordeaux Blend”, i.e. wines that blend together a palette of grape varietals to bring out the best in a given year's harvest that is consistent to the chateau's heritage and taste profile. In fact, it is often said that this step is as important as growing the vines and harvesting the grapes itself, in ensuring the success and quality of a wine’s brand and vintage.

As the blend of various grapes – of different taste profiles, depth and richness - come together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This brings to mind the importance of a diverse team with complementary skillsets - setting aside individual agendas and egos and working together in unison- in service of a wider goal and mission.

4)??? Shape and leave behind a better legacy

For many of the winemakers I visited, their past is as important as their future. When taking over the business of making wine, they make it the raison d'être to hand something better to future generations.

In fact, many of them have a special cellar to maintain wines from across the years – preserved from the oldest to the most recent vintage. This is for those that come after them to truly know (and taste) them, as these bottles represent the heart of what the winery is, the fruits of their labour and what they stand for.

5)??? Play the long game

This is both a business and a hobby that have honed the “craft of waiting” to a science and the search for “what can be better” an artform.

Since the early 1600s, Bordeaux wine producers sell their wines “En Primeur”, which meant the wines were sold in barrels, several months after the harvest to negociants, i.e. traders with the wines being bottled by them and re-sold to customers. The first vineyard to bottle wines at the chateau and sell wines directly to customers was in the 1800s. But, it wasn’t until the practice was adopted 100 years later in 1924 by another winery, did it really take off and then the industry followed suit, revolutionising how things were done – some 300 years down the road.

This constant search for what can be improved extends to the process of making and consuming wine. Examples include resting the terroir for years before replanting new vines to allow for wines of the future to thrive with adequate nutrients and rewarding the wait with a bottle of fine wine that has aged to perfection.

Wine makers, investors and connoisseurs are always balancing the need for short term gains with long term potential and breakthroughs.

This makes me think of the longer game versus the now, and recognising that as we hustle in the present, sometimes it takes the “right time, right place, right journey” for both innovations and human potential to take flight.

On that note, wishing you a year ahead filled with lots of fulfilling adventures, learnings (and of course, good wine).

Cheers! Or, should I say, Santé!

?