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Pavie and Ausone top GJE rankings

By April 4, 2008Critic Reviews

Francois_mauss

As a quick break from the '07 jamboree we thought we'd point out some rather interesting tasting results. Francois Mauss (pictured above), founder of the Grand Jury Europeen (GJE), has released a ranking of Bordeaux chateaux based on their combined GJE scores for the last seven vintages available in bottle, 1998- 2004. Perennial Parker favourite Pavie comes out top, alongside fellow St Emilion, Ausone. In fact, a total of eight of the top ten are from St Emilion and as Robert Parker notes on the Mark Squires Bulletin Board, 'eight of the first ten are [Michel] Rolland clients'. Leaving aside the argument that extra ripe, merlot-dominated wines – as the majority of the top wines here are – tend to taste better young (and score higher in mass blind tastings), it is interesting to note that the vast majority of GJE tasters are European. Perhaps European and US palates are not so different after all.

To check the current prices of any of these wine, including Pavie and Ausone, check the main Liv-ex website (registration required).

For a full run-down of how the GJE tastings work and who sits on their tasting panel, see here. Note that wines that have not been tasted a total of five times are not included on the list (presumably including Leoville Barton, Petrus, etc).

The top 25:

1 Ausone
1 Pavie
3 Haut Condissas
3 La Mondotte
5 Pape Clement
6 Valandraud
7 Angelus
8 Monbousquet
9 Beau Sejour Becot
10 Pavie Decesse
11 Tertre Roteboeuf
12 Bon Pasteur
13 Mouton Rothschild
14 Canon la Gaffelière
15 Cheval Blanc
16 Lafite Rothschild
17 Reignac CRD
18 Margaux
19 Latour
20 Berliquet
21 Sociando Mallet
22 Rol Valentin
23 Aiguilhe
24 Pichon Baron
25 La Mission Haut Brion

Selected others:

27 Leoville Las Cases
29 Montrose
32 Pavie Macquin
38 Cos Estournel
39 Pichon Lalande
42 Chasse Spleen
43 Troplong Mondot
44 Kirwan
49 Cantenac Brown
50 Pontet Canet
51 Lagrange
52 Lynch Bages
55 Haut Brion
56 Domaine Chevalier
57 Beychevelle
58 Smith Haut Lafitte
59 Giscours
71 Rauzan Segla
85 Poujeaux

You can view the full list here.