France

This morning’s releases have continued to pile up.

The big news is the release of Lynch Bages. This is a really superb wine, and a great pair to Pontet Canet. "The 2010 blew me away on each occasion I tasted it" says Robert Parker, who gave it 95-97 points.

Chateau Montrose, another property on a remarkable roll of great vintages, has released its 2010 which again is highly acclaimed and was certainly one of my wines of the vintage. Also on offer is its second wine Dame de Montrose.

Branaire Ducru is another of the fabulous wines produced in Saint Julien this year , a really taut, fine, beautifully-defined wine this year.

Chateau d’Issan has been making better and better wines in recent year, and this would be my choice rather than some the rather soupier Margaux.

Finally for this morning it is back to the right bank with Chateau Canon. This Chanel-owned property makes lovely pure wines but I can’t get my head round the price level for this.

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On the market this morning is heavy hitter and Parker superstar Clinet at £995. Pomerol has has a very good vintage in 2010, and this is massively highly-rated.

We also have an attractive vintage of Chateau Rouget in Pomerol, and Beauséjour Bécot, La Gomerie and Soutard.

At the final tasting during ‘primeurs’ week’, Charles Metcalfe said he thought that 2010 is the ‘damson vodka’ vintage. I laughed in recognition, having already included the simile in my note on Clos Fourtet. This 95-97 Parker-point wine is available in tiny quantities at £849.

Also out yesterday but almost lost in the rush was Stephan von Neipperg’s flagship, Canon la Gaffeliere. This has the massive concentration of the vintage alright, but it is off a great terroir and that does help it ‘maintain its shape’. ‘A beauty in the making’ says the James Molesworth of the Wine Spectator’, and ‘one of my favourite Saint Emilions’ for Tim Atkin, who gave it 95 points.

Chateau Bellevue, now owned by Angélus, was also out yesterday afternoon at £519, as was La Dominique,(£355) a wine I thought significantly better than this estate’s 2009, and if you are a fan this is a vintage not to miss.

Chateau Le Bon Pasteur, home to Dany and Michel Rolland, is out this morning at £520

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We now have Grand Puy Lacoste. This is a property on a roll under the ebullient Francois-Xavier Borie, and like its stablemate Haut Batailley has produced one of its best ever results – maybe the best ever. You would certainly believe so reading the critics. This is selling fast even before I have got this offer out, so please respond asap.

We also have one of the most consistent of the Saint Juliens in Chateau Lagrange, and its absolute banker Fiefs de Lagrange. This second wine is one that is reasonably priced and can offer brilliant drinking from five years for another ten or more.  As I say every year, buy lots, buy it in magnums for big parties, buy it in double magnums for fun, buy it in halves to cheer up any sad evening when you are on your own!

Other releases are Canon la Gaffeliere, La Tour Figeac, La Couspaude.

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This morning the Bordelais are back to work after the Pentecôte weekend, and another little deluge of new releases hits the market. The biggest release today is Léoville Barton, a fantastic wine to buy for yourself if you are optimistic and for your children if you are generous. Since all our customers are sunny optimists and generous to a fault, we expect this to fly.

Lilian Barton says of this year’s release "The wine is of excellent quality, quite different to 2009 with a firmer structure but the tannins are perfectly mature and we have purposely avoided over extraction. We have tried to keep our price reasonable in a very difficult year when some wines have increased by nearly 40%. We cannot completely ignore this market tread but have not followed these in the same proportion."

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Releases continue apace this morning with Malescot Saint Exupéry, Domaine de Chevalier red and white, and the first wine from the Vauthier stable at Ausone, the reasonably-priced Château Fonbel.

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We can now offer two of the long-term classics of the vintage on general release: Pontet Canet and Léoville Poyferré.

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I had a great visit to see our old neighbour Jonathan Maltus this year (he used to live in Limerston Street, round the corner from our Chelsea shop). One of the original ‘garagistes‘, Jonathan is now a major producer, and his well placed single vineyards are all exceptional wines and come recommended. – read my notes below, but do click the wine names to see the critics’ comments on the website. The winemaking here has been becoming increasingly refined, and these are exciting wines.

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There have been so many new releases from Bordeaux that it has been completely impossible to keep up with them, and no chance to do justice to them. What a pity wines with a story like Pedesclaux, Marquis d’Alesme and Marquis de Terme could not have given us a chance to shine a light on them. Also out is Tour Carnet, at a level which seems reasonable amongst its peers, and Réserve de la Comtesse from the returning to form Pichon Lalande.

As it is after ten more releases yesterday and about twenty this morning, we also have Talbot – which I thought was showing the (positive) influence of consultant Stéphane Dérenencourt whose second vintage in charge this is, and is probably the best Talbot I have tasted en primeur. Langoa Barton, which goes from strength to strength and is one of the great Saint Juliens in a slightly more approachable style than its very grand brother Léoville Barton. And we also have the release of Jonathan Maltus’ Le Dome and other single vineyards wines and finally, (which feels like the last straw!) Léoville Poyferré, which will be offered first to last year’s buyers but get you orders in. Please also refer to the recent releases page which we try to keep as up to date as possible.

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A raft of relatively minor releases – Grand Corbin, Blanc de Lynch Bages (described by Neal Martin a ‘very fine indeed’), Carbonnieux red and white, La Fleur Cardinale, and then getting more serious: Jean-Philippe Janoueix’s La Confession, a very well made saint Emilion which rates a score of 92-95 from Robert Parker. Malartic Lagraviere in Pessac-Leognan scores well in red (92-94 RP) and white (18.5 Steven Spurrier). Echo de Lynch Bages, the newly renamed (in 2009) second wine of Lynch Bages, which like its big brother gets better and better.

Then we start getting into the really big boys, Giscours, at £500 is certainly pushing up the level for its reputation here – it is a nicely fresh style and rates 17.5 from Jancis and 92-95 from Robert Parker.

Pontet Canet and Calon Segur are both also out, but with the amount released down both these hotly demanded wines are on allocation. If any stock remains after last years’ buyers we will go next to those who have wish-listed, so get you order in now.

The second wine of Cos d’Estournel Pagodes de Cos has also been released. As was remarked by Jean-Guillaume Prats when we tasted (and he obviously said the same thing to Robert Parker) this is a better wine than many examples of Cos from the ’70s and ’80s – which you can take as a way of preparing the market for this price.

This afternoon sees the arrival on the market of last year’s runaway sucess Haut Bergey, as well as Phelan Segur, Larrivet Haut Brion, and many more. It is very hard to do justice to them all when they all come out at once, but they should not have waited so long.

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The morning’s big news is the release of 2010 Château Gruaud Larose at £530 per case in bond. This is up on 2009 (which looked a bargain at the end of the campaign by comparison to wines like Lynch and Pontet Canet), but it is also ‘the best Gruaud I have tasted en primeur’ (my note), and ‘the finest Gruaud Larose since the 2000 and the 1990’ according to Robert Parker.

Claire Villars’ Château Haut Bages Liberal is also out this morning. This is up around 12% on 2009, but as a top-performing ‘secondary’ Pauillac, it offers good value relative to its neighbours. "The finest Haut-Bages-Liberal I have tasted in many years" acording to Robert Parker. De Fieuzal red and white are also out. De Fieuzal Blanc is up around 18% on the 2009 release price. It has some cracking notes including an 18 from Jancis and the remark that it is ‘one of the great dry whites of the vintage’ from Robert Parker. Offered in six-bottle cases. De Fieuzal red is up around 10.5%. This makes it into Robert Parker’s list of the ‘Top Performers of the Vintage’, but he rather ruins the effect by saying the 2008 may be better.

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