For more than twenty years, one of the most photographed women in the world barely said a word. A certain supermodel from Croydon gave us leaving-party photos in Primrose Hill, hazy wedding pictures and a string of unsuitable boyfriends, but never an interview, never a tell-all after the scandals, and until recently, no television shows. All we had was a backward glance in a cosmetics advert and a four-word parting shot: “Get the London look!” The less she told us, the more we wanted to know.
In the last couple of years, she has lifted her self-imposed media silence, and speaking as a long-time fan, it just isn’t the same. There’s no more guessing, because now we know what she thinks, or doesn’t. That isn’t what we want from our supermodels. We want the old mystery, even if it’s an impossible thing to expect of any human being for so long, because we don’t want her to be just any human being. People who buy expensive Bordeaux feel much the same way about their wine.
A miracle, apparently
Until recently, Bordeaux had been fairly quiet in the run-up to this year’s en primeur campaign. Good, I thought, tone it down and keep a little mystery, so that people can fall in love with it again instead of feeling they’ve been kissing a fool. Then today’s Drinks Business carried the headline: Bordeaux 2014 declared “Miracle Vintage”.
The miracle, according to the director of one of Bordeaux’s grand estates, was the unusually fine weather from late August until mid-November, and the 2014 vintage is said to be close in style to 2010. Which raises the question of whether it will come with 2010 prices too.
This kind of hype before an en primeur campaign helps nobody. A mature fine wine market like the UK has seen it all before, and if you’ve lost count of how many vintages of the century you’ve been offered, you’re not alone. Without the fanfare, the 2014 campaign might have cooled down to supermodel levels, by which I don’t mean lean and glamorous, just a little more space for seduction. Or, as a certain someone would say, “Never complain, never explain.”
The seduction of saying nothing (yet)
Then again, after the recent open letter from UK wine merchants, perhaps the châteaux aren’t looking at London at all.
Update: A month after this post, the same estate director told Decanter he wasn’t claiming 2014 was another vintage of the century. For a more balanced view of the vintage, see Bordeaux 2014: Châteaux hail strong vintage but market pressure builds.
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