In 2023, we partnered with renowned Sauternes producer, Château Suduiraut, to help the estate better understand the international demand for dry white wines, and more specifically, Bordeaux dry whites. With demand for sweet wines slowly decreasing, it has become increasingly important for Sauternes producers to adapt and offer alternative cuvées within their portfolio, while protecting the key sweet labels that define their identity.

Two cuvées were the main points of focus: Lions Sec and Grand Vin Blanc Sec. We conducted in-depth interviews with 13 senior figures from the world’s most influential fine wine merchants to gain insights into consumer demand for dry white wines. The survey provided actionable trade recommendations for the growth of the two brands, and dry Sauternes more widely, while revealing opportunities for future success.

We supported qualitative insights with consumer behaviour data from multiple sources to highlight which countries could be relevant targets for the wines and which audiences should be the focus of subsequent commercial strategies. Finally, we compared Lions Sec and Grand Vin Blanc Sec to a selection of comparable peers using Wine Lister’s proprietary data model, which is comprised of 15 unique data points across three categories: Quality (covering critic data and estimated wine life), Brand (exploring restaurant presence and online search frequency data), and Economics (explaining various price positioning and performance trends). This final benchmarking report identified further steps for Suduiraut to improve the positioning of its key dry white wine cuvées on the international fine wine market.