Archive for the
‘2021 Campaign’

Cheval Blanc 2021 from the Right Bank was released today – up 2.6% on the 2020 release. This wine has been highly rated by the critics and is being offered by the international trade for £4,740 per 12×75.

Both Neal Martin and Antonio Galloni at Vinous rated the wine 95-97 points. Martin said it was ‘uncompromising’ and ‘cerebral’. He added that while it was ‘not as flattering as the 2020’ it was still one of the leading wines of the Right Bank in this vintage.

The Wine Advocate’s William Kelley scored it 95-97 points and said it was a ‘terrific achievement’, ‘built for the long haul’.

Jane Anson rated the wine 96-points and Lisa-Perrotti-Brown MW (The Wine Independent) 95-97 points.

The new release costs less than its immediate predecessors, the 20202019 and 2018 vintages – which makes it an attractive buy – and we have taken our full allocation here.

If you are interested in discussing your investment wine options – please follow this link and fill in the form.

Château Pavie 2021 was released first up this morning and pleasingly the tone carries on that the wines are being released below the 2020 prices.

A 6 bottle case of the 2021 vintage was released to the UK market at £1392 underbond, where the 2020 was originally released at £1446.

Château Pavie is the largest St.Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé, with over 35 hectares of vineyards located exclusively in St-Emilion. Pavie is situated south-east of the village of St-Emilion and its vineyards lie on a south-facing slope of the famous limestone plateau.

The wine has received very good scores throughout – Neal Martin 93-95, James Suckling 95-96, Antonio Galloni 95-97 and Jane Anson 94.

This is not a wine we typically purchase for our investment syndicates, however was interesting to note the ‘sensible’ release price.

If you are interested in discussing your investment wine options – please follow this link and fill in the form.

Carruades de Lafite, the second wine at Chateau Lafite Rothschild has been released today – and it is being offered by the international trade @ £990 per 6×75, this is nearly 6% down on the 2020 release. 

The new release is the best value Carruades on the market today – and hopefully sets the tone for a decent campaign ahead. 

Antonio Galloni (Vinous) rated the second wine 91-93, calling it a ‘serious Carruades’. William Kelley writing for the Wine Advocate said it was ‘impressively intense’ and showed the progress that had been made with the wine over the last 10-15 years. He rated it 90-92. 

Jane Anson scored it 91-points saying it was ‘very Lafite in style’ with ‘a ton of concentration and hidden power’. 

The 2021 wine is the best value vintage of Carruades de Lafite available in the market. It’s release price is 16.3% less than the current Market Price of the 2020.

If you are interested in discussing your investment wine options – please follow this link and fill in the form. 

As part of this year’s Bordeaux En Primeur campaign, Château Duhart-Milon 2021 has been released at the same level as the 2020’s opening price. This again puts the Bordeaux 2021 campaign on a positive step forward – and hopefully sets the trend for the campaign ahead. 

Chateau Duhart Milon is part of the Lafite Rothschild stable – and occasionally performs well on the secondary market.

The wine has been rated 93-points by Jane Anson, 91-93+ points by William Kelley (Wine Advocate) and 90-92 by Antonio Galloni (Vinous).  

Anson said the wine showed less of the ‘rusticity you find in older Duharts’ and Kelley thought it ‘reflects the progress this estate has been making over the last decade’. 

Galloni said it was ‘serious’ and ‘brooding’ and said: ‘Whether or not it will acquire a little more charm remains an open question’. 

If you are interested in discussing your investment wine options – please follow this link and fill in the form. 

This article depicts some of our own views, top and tailed with a few extracts from Liv-ex article: Bordeaux 2021: Another chance to energise the market. 

We are coming off the back of another great trilogy of Bordeaux vintages with 2018, 2019 and 2020 all up there as very good or excellent vintages. With 2021 deemed as a challenging vintage for most, there is then plenty of potential for 2021 to be a very interesting investment opportunity.

The headline news of the 2021 vintage is as follows:

  • A cool climate vintage – that has a larger than normal drinking window (can be enjoyed early, with an ability to age well)
  • Wines produced are precise, well balanced, low alcohol with good freshness
  • Volumes are down – somewhere between 20-30%
  • It is a heterogenous vintage – some chateaux produced very good wines, others not so
  • An opportunity for Chateaux to release with attractive pricing to re-energise the market.

2021 Vintage summary

The picture that emerges is of a small, heterogenous vintage, with what are likely to be substantial peaks and troughs in quality from appellation to appellation and estate to estate.

A difficult and heterogenous vintage does not automatically equate to universally poor wines. This is especially true of a region such as Bordeaux, where investment in winemaking equipment and extremely sophisticated levels of viticultural knowledge and expertise has greatly softened the bumps that come with awkward growing seasons.

Looked at through a glass half full and on the basis of available data, one might say that the best wines will offer 2014 and the better-end-of-2017 levels of quality, with coolness and leafy freshness, that are good for early drinking.

From our seven Bordeaux campaigns, 2014 is up there with 2019 as the most successful vintage in regards to return on investment. If the Bordelaise decide to release at a sensible pricing for the 2021 campaign, this will encourage buyers to pile into Bordeaux Primeur and the 2021 campaign will once again provide an interesting vintage and interesting investment opportunity.

As you will see with many of the wines that we purchase – there is a reason why the best wines are the best year on year. They have the best plots, the best situation, they have incredible fire power to purchase the most expensive tech and machinery so they can ensure they are making the very best wines. These wines include Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Ch Canon, Rauzan Segla, Pontet Canet, Leoville Barton, Ch Margaux, Ch Palmer, Cheval Blanc, Angelus, Figeac and many more.

We will continue to take our full allocation of these, subject to sensible and expected release pricing – and with such low volumes available, it should be another interesting investment opportunity.

With frost savaging the 2022 vintage already, 2021 could be another important vintage for the Bordelaise to price correctly.