A New Year message: Letter from London

Few could have presumed that within weeks of a new decade beginning we would become so absorbed in navigating such sinuously unfolding tragedy. Long months indeed and significant setbacks became the test of each of us as coronavirus overtook our wishes for 2020. Like many businesses Justerini & Brooks was forced to adapt, and re-adapt, at some pace. It is a testament to the teams and individuals within Justerini & Brooks, as well as to the companies which partner with us, that such profound changes were absorbed into our business practices so quickly. It would be far from accurate to paint a summary of 2020 which was somehow positive, but the reality is there was much in those endeavours which provides both pride and hope.

The start of a new year should be a time to review and reflect. A pause before the rhythm gets set for the year ahead. Here at Justerini & Brooks a great deal of activity continues to fill our time. 

Back in January 1991 we encouraged a small group of our Burgundy growers to bottle some cask samples and bring them over for Justerini & Brooks’ customers to taste before they bought. It was the first UK primeur tasting of Burgundy focussed on private individuals. Little did we realise how dramatically that would grow. Most pleasingly we still represent many of those estates that made that journey from France. In fact, I write this note from our Edinburgh office where this year we are extending our primeur tastings to include the New Club on Princes Street. It allows our Scottish customers to taste the new wines, and meet some of the growers, the day before the now huge London tastings begin. Bruno Clair, among others, is personally here. As he was for that very first Justerini & Brooks tasting in London back in 1991. 

We will all certainly remember 2016 as the year of milestones. In the broader world 2016 was a year of quite some change, which has given us a lot to reflect on. Beyond careful planning for the future, at Justerini & Brooks it was a year we allowed a small focus on celebration. 

Firstly, we had a couple of important anniversaries. Our business, which started in St. James’s back in 1749, celebrated its 150th anniversary of doing business with the United States. The arrival of ocean-going steam ships allowed the rich and inquisitive of New York to come to London, and us to go there (Justerinis subsequently opened an office there in 1866). Yet records show the U.S. didn’t even house our first overseas customer – a lone Indian Maharaja beats the glitzy and more broad arrival of Manhattan by eight years. From that first customer we now service the needs of collectors across 49 different countries.

2014 was an exciting year for Justerini & Brooks. Despite continuing challenges in the wider wine market the business grew, but not without work.

We saw particular success with our portfolio of Burgundy, Champagne and Italian wines, all of which have continued to be increasingly demanded by our customers. This year’s Barolo campaign was the first for Justerini & Brooks to exceed £1million sales in the month it was released, with a further £1million sold in older vintages over the following few months. A well-deserved and exciting development for a region we began importing into the UK a generation or so ago with the 1989 vintage.

The demand for prestige and artisan Champagnes in 2014 proved to be even stronger with our customers, with Champagne sales almost surprisingly growing by 20% on the year before. Some quality vintages and a broadening portfolio sit behind that. Sadly, the same success cannot be said of Bordeaux, with the 2013 en primeur campaign being the smallest Bordeaux campaign for Justerini & Brooks since the 1990s. Though we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Bordeaux still remains quite substantially the biggest area of our business. We've also noticed a strengthening in demand of older vintages of Bordeaux over the past six months at these new prices, with the successful sale of several substantial and world-class cellars through our broking team.

The start of a new decade and the beginning of our 261st year of trading is perhaps a timely moment to reflect on the state of the fine wine market.

It is unquestionably the case that this time last year we looked towards 2009 through an uncertain lens. The previous six months had proven to be tumultuous and there was no strong indication of how the market would proceed.

Our deep rooted belief in the merits of quality domaine bottled Burgundy was again shown to be shared by our customers, as was seen by the strength of the Burgundy 07 Primeur campaign launched last January.

The broking market also seemed to find its footing that month; we sold more Bordeaux in the first week of January than we did in the whole preceding month of December.