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16/05/2018

Bordeaux En Primeur Latest Releases

by Giles Cooper (Head of Marketing & PR)
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This morning was saw the release of the ever-popular Beychevelle at a pretty smart price of GBP 650. Whilst this isn’t a huge discount from last year, it is unquestionably the cheapest vintage in the market – and for a producer with genuine ambition, this looks a pretty wise strategy. We believe Beychevelle is one of the leading ‘upward curve’ Bordeaux properties, and their 2017 is a tribute to the quality of their beautifully-located terroir right next to the Gironde in St Julien and the breadth and depth of the investment being made in the winemaking facilities. This is a property to watch.

This afternoon we have seen an old favourite in the form of Talbot.At GBP 456 – less than GBP 50 per bottle on the table when you’ve paid your duty and VAT – we think this is a great way to put some truly delightful claret in your cellar. A classic in the best possible sense of the word, in that it typifies the precision, terroir-specific, digestible style of St Julien, Talbot has always been a big favourite with British buyers. There is no doubt that the late 90s and early 2000s saw them fall a little behind the pack; in fact we hadn’t visited the property for some time until this year. We were very excited by what we saw, heard, and tasted. At the helm, from early this year, is our good friend Jean-Michel Laporte, formerly the winemaker at La Conseillante (and creator of some of our all-time favourite vintages of that fine estate). This is a top hire, and further investment from the owning Casteja family is coming in spades. There are great things to come from this little patch of the Medoc, make no mistake.

We have also seen a handful of wines from the von Neipperg stable, in the form of Clos de l’Oratoire (with an impressive 93-94pts JS) at GBP 300, and Clos Marsalette and D’Aiguilhe at GBP 180 each.

In the sweeties we’ve also seen Rieussec, which has a huge 97-98 from James Suckling, at the upper end of our spread at GBP 495.

Yesterday we saw a number of releases:

Poujeaux at GBP 258

Haut Bages Liberal at GBP 340

Malescot St Exupery at GBP 430

And the very impressive, albeit expensive, Suduiraut at GBP 565