2015 Bordeaux – Saint Emilion Big Boys: Pavie, Angélus, Troplong

This morning sees the release of some of the big names in Saint Emilion, including Gérard Perse’s 2015 CHÂTEAU PAVIE, Hubert de Bouard’s 2015 CHÂTEAU ANGÉLUS and the one that missed out on the move up to Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘A’, 2015 CHÂTEAU TROPLONG MONDOT. These are all massive wines, and all undoubtedly extremely impressive, even if not absolutely our personal favourites in stylistic terms, but the truth is that a few years down the line they do fine down, and there is no doubting the impressive richness as well as the purity and balance achieved by the two ‘A’s. These two garner huge ‘points’ scores and are impressively priced to boot, but with James Suckling giving the Pavie 100, and Angélus 99-100, they will no doubt find buyers, other critics’ score are similarly enthusiastic. Our preference was for the Angélus of the two. The Troplong is arguably an entry level (ha!) version of this style, as Tim Atkin puts it “If you’re a fan of big wines in the Pavie mould, this is a much better balanced example of the style. It’s ripe, oaky and a little pruney, with plush tannins, sweet figgy fruit and considerable concentration”, but read our note as well as just glancing at the score to determine whether this this is your sort of wine. The second wines of Angélus and Pavie are also out, and we did really rather like 2015 CARILLON D’ANGÉLUS. Two other Perse wines are also available: Bellevue Mondotte at £1150 and Pavie Decesse at £960. We have not included these in our offer, but orders are still welcome!