Why the American market is so important to Bordeaux winemakers

For centuries, Bordeaux was at the centre of the world’s trade in wine. Its access to sea routes helped make claret the favourite wine of the British Empire, which in turn spread Bordeaux’s fame far and wide. That dominance has evaporated over the past four decades as a technological revolution in viticulture shattered Bordeaux’s monopoly on quality, creating challengers in California, Argentina, Australia and South Africa. Globalization helped those upstart wine regions compete directly with Bordeaux in markets around the world.