Out this morning is our perennial value buy Les Ormes de Pez, produced by the same team as Lynch Bages and consistently punching above its Cru Bourgeois status – buy this and not Chasse Spleen, please. As I say every year, stick it away in magnums for dinner parties or weddings or whatever in ten+ years time.
The other side of the river sees the release of Beauséjour Bécot at £385. This is down by a substantial amount from its 2010 release at £565. I still cannot quite see that it is a compelling primeur buy – but I did like the wine quite a lot.
In Sauternes the other Doisy, Denis Dubourdieu’s Château Doisy Daëne, is also out. I liked this a lot, it’s true to its fresh lemony Barsac style, but if you are buying just one Sauternes this year, the choice would have to be Doisy Vedrines for me. Also available now is the rarissimo super-cuvée from the same estate, l’Extravagant de Doisy Daëne, available right down to one half-bottle at a time.
Click the wine names to see other critics’ notes.