(Decanter) - Jane Anson considers an alternative future for Bordeaux en primeur, following a disappointing 2017 vintage campaign for many merchants.

 Walking past Justerini & Brooks last week in London, I saw they had a sign in their rather beautiful window – all vine leaves and wooden wine cases – that said ‘Bordeaux 2017: a Darwinian Vintage’.

My guess is they were referring to the weather, but the phrase could equally apply to the campaign itself. If only the fittest survive, then the 2017 en primeur campaign was the one that showed Bordeaux is in need of an oxygen mask and some 24-hour nursing.

The numbers for this campaign make for painful reading. Less than half the turnover of the last two years for almost every merchant I spoke to – some dropped even lower than 2013. Possibly because the average release price was just 6% below the current market price for 2015, according to Wine Lister.

Not coincidentally, over at Liv-ex they say releases prices were on average 20% above what they call ‘fair value’ (based on existing prices in the marketplace), with a corresponding 60% fall in sales from the 2016 vintage en primeur.