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20/06/2016

En Primeur Latest Releases

by Giles Cooper (Head of Marketing & PR)
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The final first to be released En Primeur, Lafite Rothschild, is now available at £4350. This is marginally above the other firsts but the premium is smaller than in previous years, which is quite welcome.

Our own joint highest-scoring wine in the Médoc, alongside Margaux, Lafite 2015 was described vividly by one of our tasting team as possessing “the heart of a lion”; we were stunned by its incredible purity, its vibrant, richly fruited palate and startling vivacity and character. Those who had been fortunate enough to taste through the 2009 and 2010 vintages were immediately transported back to those heady days, so convinced were we of the 2015’s innate power and precision. 

In our view the natural comparison for 2015 is the 2005 which has always been somewhat underrated by Parker (it currently has 95 points) but reviewed much more favourably by Neal Martin (who is rather more on the money with 98 points, awarded at our 10-Years-On tasting in January 2015). The 2005 currently trades at GBP 6450, having peaked at GBP 13,500 in mid-2011. So with the 2009 at GBP 6200 and 2010 at GBP 5750, the 2015 is at least 24% below the cheapest comparable physical vintage in the market.

One of the last big names of the Right Bank was released today. The impressive L'Evangile is now available at £1560. Undoubtedly the greatest L’Evangile since the 2010/2009 pair and arguably a step up from the superb 2005 (which impressed us so much at our 10-Years-On tasting last year), the 2015 is a massively intense, beautifully structured wine. Incredibly powerful, densely muscled and ripe but nimble and elegant, it reflects the very best of the Right Bank in this superb vintage.