The wonderful thing about the German language is that it has words for just about everything. And when it doesn't, you can simply make one up.

Like Schatzblindheit which literally means 'treasure-blindness' — inability to recognise or take advantage of obvious value.

Or, Chancenblindheit - 'opportunity blindness'.

Or maybe Hilfeannahmeverweigerung - 'refusal to accept help'

You won't find any of these in a German dictionary, but the first two in particular seem to be perfectly appropriate descriptions of a phenomenon I learned about this weekend.

The conversation was with a charming mutilingual Lebanese man who runs wine tours, principally in Bordeaux. His customers are usually couples or small groups and not French. Their wine knowledge and enthusiasm varies widely, so he has learned to tailor the tours to suit each client.

Where chateau visits are involved (many customers are happy to visit the Cité du Vin and two or three wine bars in Bordeaux itself), he normally finds that two or three estates is also what they are looking for. He agreed with the comment I had had from a tour operator based in Sydney, that "the average (non wine-enthusiast) client wants to visit one-and-a-half wineries. If the second is very different to the first, they'll do two; if not, they'd be happy to stop at one."

When we talked about the way the chateaux received the guests, he said that it's usually well done: informative and with good samples, usually for a cost of €25-75, which struck me as cheap by Napa standards, but I suspect that in the Médoc, there's less of an overall 'experience'.

 Then I asked what seemed to me to be a very obvious question: how did the wineries go about collecting the visitors' names, emails and social media handles? The answer was simple: they don't.

Not ever? I asked. No, came the reply, not once.

My next question, about whether any effort is made to help the visitors get the wine in their own countries, or to ship it for them, was unnecessary, but I asked it anyway. And of course, I received the response I expected.

Bordeaux has wine shops that offer to ship wine almost anywhere (including the always-tricky US), and there are businesses that make it possible for chateaux to provide the service to visitors. I presume that some of the region's 5,000 estates take advantage of them, just not the ones - including quite big names - that feature on this tour operator's itineraries.

Allowing wine drinkers to visit your winery, without at the very least trying to obtain some means of remaining in contact with them, makes absolutely no sense in 2026. And trying to persuade them to buy a few bottles without having to carry it home in their suitcases, strikes me as being like a waiter offering a dessert or coffee after clearing away the main course.

Anyway, the Lebanese guide's experience was very similar to what I had seen myself a few months earlier watching the way visitors were handled by chateaux during St Emilion's Open Day. (Which is why I asked the question).

This brings me back to Schatzblindheit and Chancenblindheit.

The Irish poet, Yeats apparently said "“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.” I'd adapt it to say "There's nobody here who wouldn't like to hear from you or possibly to buy your wine. Only visitors for whom you haven't made it easy."

Matthew McCulloch of MD Langmeil Winery in Australia reacted to this conversation by saying that he favours having signs saying:

‘Here’s a list of where you can find our wines at home.’

‘If you can’t find our wines at home, we can arrange their shipping home for you.’

and

‘If you just want to keep up to date with things here, you can join us on our socials/subscribe to our emails'

Because "If the guests enjoyed a great experience, they may repay you when they return home by reliving it as ambassadors to their family and friends, who might visit one day as a result. They may even purchase your wines based on their recommendation."

I'd say that's great advice - and that anyone who chooses not to take it, could reasonably be accused of Hilfeannahmeverweigerung.

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