by Daniel Rogov » Sat Apr 17, 2010 6:55 pm
A Few Words in Defense of B&G
Few people had greater power in the 18th century Bordeaux wine
trade than Irishman Thomas Barton and his French partner, Daniel
Guestier. Dealers who bottled and shipped the wines of noble cha-
teaux such as Margaux, Haut-Brion, Lafite and Latour, the firm of
"Barton & Guestier" which was founded in 1725,
was one of the most influential and respected forces in shaping
the world's tastes in wine. Even after the great chateaux began
bottling their own wines, the role of such dealers (negociants in
French) did not decline, for they remained the sales and distribu-
tion outlets upon which even the greatest of chateaux continued to
rely.
In the 1950s and 60s, when most of the great chateaux began to
sell and distribute their wines directly, all but a few of the
negociants began to lose their power. In fact, by the 1970s, se-
veral of these three century old companies were in such bad eco-
nomic condiition that they were taken over by foreign interests.
Barton and Guestier was one of those companies and, since the late
1950s has been under the control of the giant Seagram's. With
those takeovers, a new breed of negociant was born, companies that
buy, blend and produce wine under their own labels.
Barton and Guestier, which is known widely by its initials as
"B&G", does not attempt to make great wines. Nor do they make
wines intended to appeal to sophisticated wine drinkers. In fact,
the company does not even especially try to appeal to Frenchmen,
and more than 70% of their wines are exported and another 10% are
sold at duty free shops. What the company does strive for is wines
that are easy to drink, not overly expensive and that will appeal
to large numbers of modern consumers. While B&G wines are rarely
complex enough to appeal to connoisseurs, they have found a re-
ceptive audience, especially in the United States where they remain
the best selling French wines.
