Ahe big wine brands, the iconic references that all oenophiles know, are normally supported by other names that, at a lower level, support and expand the company’s name. This practice is valid here and in other countries, although with different nuances. In the Bordeaux region, where large estates proliferate, the practice of having a second brand (and increasingly a third) that are hierarchically below the Grand Vin, the wine that normally bears the name of the wine, has become widespread. château. Thus, Petit Cheval (from Ch. Cheval Blanc), Petit Mouton (from Ch. Mouton Rothschild), Les Forts de Latour (from Ch. Latour) and the list could continue. The big difference between there and here is that, in Bordeaux, the first brand takes the biggest slice of the pie, with quantities that are often triple that of the second brand. It’s normal, in the biggest castleswe are talking about 200 thousand bottles of the first brand and perhaps 50 to 80 thousand of the second brand. Here the logic is reversed: much less of the first wine is made than the second. In today’s suggestion, Post Scriptum makes 120 thousand bottles, while Chryseia (1st brand) makes 37 thousand, a quantity that, among us, can be considered very high, if we consider that Chryseia costs €77. Portuguese producers often choose, in the first brand, to make 2000 or 3000 bottles, and the portfolio then unfolds in a pyramid. We undoubtedly lack size at the top of the range. Pintas Character is not admittedly a second Pintas brand but it was born with this stigma (also induced by the name) and the idea stuck. Meandro, for example, has always been a second brand from Quinta do Vale Meão, which, reaffirms the winemaker, “I can never make more than 21 thousand liters destined for Vale Meão, despite my father always asking for more” and, therefore, there is a lot of wine destined for Meandro and the other brands created in the meantime. Let’s be honest: some second brands are wines with an extraordinary quality/price ratio. They have many advantages, such as availability on the market, without complicated allocations, without having to know a friend who might be able to get a bottle of the first brand, without the subterfuge in which we are true experts. In the Bordeaux case there is an unwritten rule but it works very well: as prices vary annually depending on the quality of the harvest, it is common to say that “in less good years you can get the first brand (always very selected and well-made wines) and in great years we can easily get a second brand of a very high level, without having to spend a lot, like the 2022 harvest”. In Portugal this rule could also be used, but the option was different: only declare the first mark in good years and remain clear in others. But we have certainly been blessed by luck: there are many more years in which top-of-the-range products are published than those in which there are not; Take a look at the two brands I mentioned, Vale Meão and Pintas, which usually have an annual edition. And prices do not vary, they are more or less constant, if not higher than in the previous harvest. Who knows, climate change, after all, has been kind to the Douro, generating excellent harvests year after year. Just for fun, keep in mind that the Petit Mouton costs almost €200! Not bad for a second brand! It seems the market is to blame…