The repositioning of L’Evangile

It seems that the owners have decided to raise the profile (and prices) of the chateau, targeting a doubling of the price in the next couple of years.

I have heard this from a couple of UK merchants and an American distributor, so currently a rumor rather than anything more definitive. Not sure even with Lafite ownership, they can do this anyway, for as good as it is, it has always been for me a third tier Pomerol, and the latest wines are even less interesting as currently I am finding them somewhat more spoofy.

Have others heard the same rumors?

Very intriguing - thanks for bringing it up. I haven’t heard any such rumours but I had assumed they had already done this anyway. The 2018 is double the price of the 2014, the 2016 and 2017 were almost double the price. They’re all three times more than the 2008, which was the last vintage I actually bought. Whether or not the increase is justified is a moot point - I agree with you - but it depends if they can sell the wine at those prices (I have no idea if they have). It has never been a wine that has excited me unduly. The whole concept of re-positioning, unless it is fueled by massively increased demand, is something that escapes me.

I need more VCC. A better and more consistent Chateau, IMHO.

Interesting. I like L’Evangile more than Mark, to me it’s a strong 2nd tier (of course it depends on your tiers), for me on level of VCC, Trotanoy, Conseillante. I guess 1st tier is Petrus and Lafleur, though my Petrus experience is one vintage, and my Lafleur expeirences mixed. But this is based on late 20th century wines, I haven’t tasted much of last 12-15 vintages. But I agree repositioning is best done by creating demand, we’ll see how this turns out.

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It doesn’t sell now - the last vintages that sold in decent volumes were 09/10 - the rest have been a bit of a failure. It doesn’t really sell EP now so god knows why they would ‘re-position’.

And 2019 en primeur is definitely not going to be the vintage to do that.

I´ve heard no such rumour, but disagree with the designation “third tier Pomerol” - because that would mean that the 1st and 2nd tier consists of no more than 2 Chateaux each - or that there are at least 10 different tiers.
Leaving Petrus, Lafleur and Le Pin aside (the latter mostly due to prices) L´Evangile would certainly be (for me) in the next group of 5 or 6 producers in Pomerol.

But double price is immediately a no-go for me

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Interesting. Thanks, Tom.

I guess I should give my reasoning behind the third tier comment. Petrus and Lafleur are first tier; VCC is on the fringe of first and top of the second. To that second tier I would add the Trotanoy and Le Pin; after that, I think there is a pretty large gap before the next tier which would include Conseillante, Evangile and Lafleur Petrus.


The gap between second and third is much larger than that between first and second, so if you wanted larger groups, I would fold the second tier into the first, and move third tier up to second. To me that would still leave the problem of each tier having a fairly large quality differential between best and worst; e.g Petrus and Trotanoy.

Albeit at a much lower level, hasn’t Petit Village tried this the last two years, with mixed results?

I’d think this would be harder to do nowadays given that there is no longer one dominant voice for Bordeaux wine criticism, and thus price setting.

Isn’t La Conseillante sorta in an “unknown” category given the switch to a modernist consultant?

I had the 2017 last night. If that’s what “modernist” is, I’m all in.

I’ve not had any since the switch, but obviously have a running list of “do not likes” from this guy. I did buy 2014 but went no further. To much else out there.

This sort of “repositioning” almost never helps a brand. Remember when Pioneer introduced it’s Elite line? They tried to compete with high end manufacturers like MacIntosh and Levinson, and failed miserably. We could cite other industries too, like autos, appliances, clothing, etc.

For years, Cheval and Haut Brion lagged the other First growths. There was a concerted campaign to get them to the same level and pricing which worked well. The Dillons, however, were far less successful when they tried to do the same with La Mission red, but were far more successful rebranding and pricing the white.