(Decanter) - The latest Burgundy export figures suggest the region's wines are becoming harder for consumers to find and there are fears that prices have risen too strongly.
Burgundy wine exports dropped by 12% in volume for the first seven months of 2014, versus the same period of last year, according to Burgundy trade body BIVB.

It blamed a series of consecutive, small harvests not seen for at least 50 years. ‘The main markets for Burgundy wines are suffering from a lack of availability,’ it said. Burgundy’s premier export markets saw some of the worst declines.

Exports to the US and the UK fell by 12.5% to just under 8.5m bottles and by 24% to 7.8m bottles respectively.

Higher prices helped to mitigate the financial repercussions within Burgundy. The value of exports to the US and UK fell less steeply than volumes, by 1.6% and 7.7% respectively.

But, price rises carry their own difficulties. ‘We risk losing shares in traditional markets because of higher prices,’ said Pierre Gernelle, director of the Federation des Syndicats de Négociants-Eleveurs de Bourgogne (FNEB), which includes well-known houses like Bouchard Pere & Fils and Chandon as members.

‘Some regular customers may not want to buy Burgundy any more as prices trend higher, so we hope that 2014 will bring a normal harvest and result in softer prices.’

Gernelle added that he was not speaking about grand cru or premier cru wines, where prices ‘will likely remain high’, but rather for village and regional level wines.

The BIVB expects a more normal-sized harvest of around 150m litres for the region in 2014, despite another year of serious hail damage in some appellations, including Beaune, Pommard and Volnay.