CHATEAU MOUTON ROTHSCHILD WILL OFFER FEWER BOTTLES EN PRIMEUR FOR VINTAGE 2015. "THINGS ARE CHANGING AND DEMAND FOR BOTTLES IS GROWING", SAID PHILIPPE SEREYS DE ROTHSCHILD, PRESIDENT OF THE BORDEAUX CHATEAU

Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the most prestigious wineries in the world and among the five premier Bordeaux cru (together with Château Lafite, Château Latour, Château Margaux, and Haut-Brion), will offer fewer "en primeur" bottles of vintage 2015, due to a growing demand especially from the East, revealed www.thedrinksbusiness.com site, which got the information directly from Sereys Philippe de Rothschild, incoming President of the famous Bordeaux château.
“Things are changing and we have a growing demand for bottles, particularly in Hong Kong,” said Sereys de Rothschild. “This trend is in fact draining our wine cellar”.
Their decision (which Winenews had already divulged a few days ago) seems perfectly in line with the "Semaine des Primeurs" (April 4 to 7), which this year will greatly reduce "hospitality”. The two days in the wine cellars have disappeared, which was open only to importers and wine merchants, and space for the press is greatly reduced because, as the president of Unions des Grands Crus, Olivier Bernard explained, “we must give back the essential elements to the Semaine, which are primarily optimal tasting of the vintage by those who will market and critics. For 25 years, we have allowed people who really had little to say on the topic, to move in a world where they did not belong”.
“We have not lost confidence in the en primeur system”, said Sereys de Rothschild, “but we must practical. Today there are many points of reference for consumers, and it takes only two seconds to look for the price of a wine on a cell phone”.