- Château Haut-Batailley 2016 has been released at £420 per 12×75.
- Neal Martin rated the wine 94 points.
- The new release looks good value.
Château Haut-Batailley 2016 has been released at €35 per bottle ex-négociant. The wine is being offered by the international trade for £420 per 12×75.
The vintage was not released during the 2017 En Primeur campaign, as the estate was purchased by the Cazes family, owners of Château Lynch Bages, just before it commenced. Instead, the new owners opted to release the vintage once in bottle, and with a special label to mark the transition.
The new release presents good value for money when seen in the context of other vintages. Read more pricing analysis below.
Critics’ scores
Tasted blind during the 2020 Southwold tasting, Neal Martin (Vinous) awarded the 2016 a score of 94-points. He called it ‘an outstanding Haut-Batailley,’ explaining that he appreciated ‘the substance toward the finish, and the pencil lead lingering on the aftertaste’.
Two years earlier, Antonio Galloni (Vinous) had scored it just 89-points. He said: ‘The 2016 is a wine that the Cazes family blended, but did not make, and is clearly a transitional wine’.
The wine received 92+ points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW at the time of writing for The Wine Advocate, and 94-points from James Suckling.
Fair Value
The new release is among the highest-scoring Haut-Batailley vintages (when considering scores from our Benchmark Critic). It is positioned in line with the current Market Price of the 2019 vintage, which also carries 94-points from Martin.
Buyers might also wish to consider the similarly scored and only slightly more expensive 2009 vintage, which has also been the estate’s top-traded vintage this year.
The evolution of La Place de Bordeaux and the changing nature of the secondary fine wine market were covered in our recent report. Fill in the form below to claim your complimentary copy of the report.
Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 600 merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £80m of bids and offers across 16,000 wines. Independent data, direct from the market.
