< Back to Blog
07/05/2019

Bordeaux En Primeur 2018: New Releases Tuesday 7th May

by Giles Cooper (Head of Marketing & PR)
  1. Follow

After (and indeed, during…) the Bank Holiday weekend we have had a flurry of activity. Two of the most sought-after wines came, and sold out immediately, just this morning: Calon Segur and Les Carmes Haut Brion. Such is the furore over these two estates at the moment that we were hugely oversubscribed right from the start of the campaign.

Yesterday saw a very smart release in the form of Beychevelle at GBP 720. This is well below the price of the most recent comparable vintages, the 2015 and 2016 (GBP 850) and a full 25% below the 2009 and 2010 (GBP 960). A wine which has come so far in the past decade, undoubtedly benefiting from the combination of the expertise of GM Philippe Blanc and the investment in a stunning new winery, it has progressed from a St Julien ‘also-ran’ into one of the leading wines of the appellation.

This morning’s star release in our eyes was the fabulous St Emilion Pavie Macquin at the very reasonable price of GBP 632.

One of the jewels in the crown of the Thienpont family estates (on the Nicolas Thienpont side) alongside the equally superb Beauseajour Duffau Lagarosse, this remarkable piece of terroir up on the steep ‘côtes’ combines a multitude of different soil types and aspects giving a variety of characters and textures from across the property. Being predominantly clay and limestone the land held up magnificently during the hot summer and kept the vines amply supplied – resulting in layers of incredible, plush, hedonistic fruit intertwined with pure, cool minerality and shot through with amazing freshness.

Whilst the price for back vintages doesn’t move much, we still believe this is very much a buy and worth having En Primeur. We foresee a new wave of interest coming for this family stable of wines and Pavie Macquin 2018 is one of the best-value wines you can buy in this campaign.

Both wines have excellent scores and we recommend both as a solid buy.

Other releases over the past couple of days:

Cantemerle at GBP 246

Malartic Lagraviere at GBP 420

Malescot St Exupery at GBP 492