Today see the release of a long-term favourite ‘Cru Bourgeois’ Chateau Charmail, and late last week we had a minor but solid Margaux, Chateau La Gurgue. Both these offer sound value, and go into our ‘recommended Medocs’ selection.
In the Sauternes, two ‘five-star’ wines were released, both down in price from last year, which is reassuring, given that the vintage in general is not quite 2009 in the Sauternes, but our feeling is that while Guiraud offers value for money at this level, the Suduiraut is still straining the market and we suspect we will see ‘deals’ later linking it to Pichon Baron. Which is all very well if Pichon Baron is a bargain. Not sure about the likelihood of that, nor the whole concept of linking Sauternes to the purchase of other wines.
Finally we have Gazin, testing the market at a higher price (by around 7%) than last year. On one view we don’t want to encourage anyone to think that the market will accept higher pricing than last year, on the other hand it is very good this year, and it is true that a large gap has opened up between the likes of Gazin and the top wines of the appellation, a much bigger gap than used to exist, so they have some justification.