2016 update
With much of the trade currently tasting in Bordeaux, the week has been dominated by talk of the latest vintage. James Suckling declared 2016 “a Left Bank year” just before the weekend, and released his final thoughts on Tuesday. Three First Growths were awarded a straight 100-points: Haut Brion, Mouton Rothschild and Lafite.
Later in the week, Wine Spectator’s James Molesworth published his own reviews. He commented that “the pieces are in place for the best year since 2010, though I am not putting anything right next to that true benchmark just yet”.
Decanter’s Bordeaux reviewer Jane Anson published thoughts on the Right Bank and Sauternes, commenting that the Right Bank wines are “not as immediately sexy as the 2015 vintage, but they are still voluptuous and beautifully structured”.
Bordeaux dips further
Despite all of the talk around Bordeaux, the regions share of trade on the market declined further this week. Burgundy continued to see high activity while Champagne also stepped into the spotlight, boosted by trade for Cristal 2007. Other regions, including Italy and the Rhone, saw quiet weeks.
Australia made something of a comeback, with Torbreck among the top traded by value – the first time a wine from down under has appeared in the table for quite some time.
Montrose 2010 activity
Last Friday, Neal Martin’s vertical report on Montrose was published in The Wine Advocate. The Chateau’s 2009 and 2010 vintages – both previously awarded 100 points by Robert Parker – were ‘downgraded’ by Martin, to 98 and 99 points respectively. This does not appear to have dampened interest in the wines, with Montrose 2010 seeing a flurry of activity this week.
Also this week:
Today, Liv-ex made an abridged version of its special report, Bordeaux 2016: A new dawn for En Primeur, available to Cellar Watch subscribers in this month’s Market Report. Yesterday, we published fair value analysis on Neal Martin’s in-bottle review of Bordeaux 2014. Both the Liv-ex 100 and Liv-ex 1000 indices closed the month up at the end of March, and a career opportunity for a talented individual with an interest in data was posted in Insights earlier in the week.
For comments on the Bordeaux 2016 vintage as they happen, see Bordeaux 2016 – the conversation, our tailored Twitter feed. You can view and compare critic scores as they are released on the critic scores page.
[mc4wp_form id=”18204″]
