A couple of months ago we looked at which Bordeaux 2016s received the best Quality scores, calculated from scores given by our three renowned partner critics: Jancis Robinson, Antonio Galloni, and Bettane+Desseauve. Such quality comes with a price, however, and if the £430 per bottle for Lafleur (Quality score 990) is a little beyond your price range, then we hope this blog is useful. Below are the nine wines from the vintage which qualify as Wine Lister Value Picks.
None of the Value Picks was among the top 15 in our previous blog. Nevertheless, they all enjoy strong or very strong Quality scores on the Wine Lister scale. Fombrauge scores 898, and was described as “rather opulent” and “very successful” by Jancis Robinson. Available at just £16 per bottle, it represents excellent value for money.
Even the wine with the highest Quality score, sweet white Doisy-Daëne (899), is only £25. Those wishing to spend slightly less on a sweet white might also consider Filhot, which achieves a Quality score of 709, and is available at just £14 per bottle.
Please see our previous blog for further information on Wine Lister’s Value Picks.
With the latest online search frequency data in from Wine-Searcher we can now see which wines caught the public’s attention in May. Results demonstrate the effect of the 2016 en primeur campaign – now coming to a close – with Bordeaux brands taking four of the five top spots.
Cos d’Estournel saw online searches rise the most last month: the brand was one of the first out of the blocks with its 2016 release, which came in late April, maintaining the same price as its 2015. Exactly one month later, Lynch-Bages released its 2016 for €96 ex-négociant. Despite a 14% increase on 2015, the release went down well on the Place de Bordeaux, perhaps due to the wine achieving the highest Quality score of the century.
Montrose, which saw the third largest increase in searches in May, released its 2016 mid-month. With its Quality score up on 2009, 2010 and 2015, but, like neighbour Cos, releasing at the same price as 2015, Montrose 2016 looked like one of the vintage’s better buys. Figeac also saw searches soar in May but is something of an anomaly in this table – it only released its 2016 on Tuesday 13th June, too late to influence May’s search statistics. Nonetheless, the brand may well be garnering interest due to its exceptional Quality score, as rated by our three partner critics (Jancis Robinson in the UK, Bettane + Desseauve in France and Antonio Galloni in the US).
The final wine of the table, providing some respite from Bordeaux, is a heavyweight from Burgundy: DRC La Tâche. Two auctions in May – one from Sotheby’s and one from iDealwine – saw a number of bottles of La Tâche for sale, which may explain the boost in searches.
Now that all our partner critics’ scores have been published, we have been able to feed them into Wine Lister’s bespoke algorithm to arrive at Quality scores for the Bordeaux 2016 vintage. The top 15 wines are shown below.
Wine Lister’s Quality score combines the ratings from our partner critics, three of the most respected critics in the world – Jancis Robinson, Antonio Galloni, and Bettane+Desseauve. A small weighting is also added for a wine’s ageing potential.
Ironically, the top wine of the vintage is Latour, not available to buy en primeur since the château withdrew from the system in 2012. The Pauillac first growth surged 34 positions up the table from last year, to 992 points for its 2016 Quality score.
Lafleur is just behind on 990, closely followed by Haut-Brion, Petrus and Vieux Château Certan. In fact, all the usual contenders make an appearance in the top 15, including the five first growths, their right bank equivalents such as Le Pin, Cheval Blanc, and Ausone, and Sauternes’ own first growth, Château d’Yquem.
Less obvious showings that are likely to represent better value include Calon Ségur, which improved a mammoth 51 places on last year, as well as Figeac and Pontet-Canet, in joint 15th position.
The top 40 2016 Quality scores will be listed in our upcoming Bordeaux market study, due for release later this week, and available to subscribers here. Alternatively, see the full ranking on the website.
Château Cos d’Estournel took everyone by surprise this morning when it released its 2016 vintage en primeur sooner than expected, at €120 per bottle ex-négociant, the same price as its 2015. Intelligence gathered by Wine Lister suggested that châteaux considered to have made “mistakes” with the release of their 2015 vintage en primeur might release early and at the same price as last year.
However, even the Place de Bordeaux was not expecting a second growth to release its wine the day after the first round of the French presidential elections, and just four days after the terrorist attack in Paris.
Cos d’Estournel is considered to have had a mediocre 2015 en primeur campaign compared to some of its peers, not necessarily pricing too high, but releasing too early. However, reports are that stocks did sell through later in year. Today’s move is bold, but could pay off, if Cos d’Estournel 2016 can harness the excitement that is growing around the Bordeaux 2016 vintage before it has too much competition.
© Château Cos d’Estournel
By sticking to last year’s price, Cos is keeping the Bordeaux trade happy, and early reports are that négociants are wholeheartedly getting behind the release. The weak pound means that Cos d’Estournel 2016 is being offered to consumers in the UK at £117 per bottle, a 10% premium on the 2015 price of £106 per bottle. This might well be palatable given the quality of the wine this year and the goodwill shown by the château in not increasing its euro release price. UK merchants certainly seem to be enthusiastic in terms of their messages to consumers so far.
Wine Lister’s UK partner critic Jancis Robinson awarded the Cos d’Estournel 2016 18 points (compared to 18.5 for the 2015). Our French partner critics Bettane+Desseauve, and our US partner critic, Vinous, will release their Bordeaux 2016 scores later this week.
As we know, the quality of a wine is not set in stone. Just like our Brand and Economics scores, Wine Lister’s Quality scores are also updated over time as wines evolve and new vintages are released.
Our algorithm analyses Quality by aggregating ratings from our three partner critics: Jancis Robinson, Bettane+Desseauve and Vinous (Antonio Galloni). It also comprises a small weighting for a wine’s longevity, based on the critics’ combined drinking windows, with the drink-by date updated regularly as our partner critics retaste and reevaluate.
In this post we look at the 10 biggest gainers in Quality over the course of 2016:
Huet’s Le Mont Moelleux improved the most last year, adding over 20% to its score, taking it to 917. This is down to a score of 18/20 for the 2015 vintage from our UK partner critic JancisRobinson.com.
Also partly thanks to a new score of 18 from the same critic, in second place is the fortified Ramos Pinto Quinta do Bom Retiro 20 Year Old Tawny Port. The wine was also deemed to be eight years longer-lived than had been previously thought, contributing considerably to its Quality score surge.
Château Simone’s Palette Rouge received a higher-than-average score from Bettane+Desseauve for its 2012 vintage, making it the third-highest gainer for the year.
Improvements were also enjoyed across a wide range of other regions, from Bordeaux to Champagne, and in the New World.
Who will be 2017’s biggest Quality gainers? Only time (and tastings) will tell.
This week saw the launch of Louis Roederer Cristal 2009. Addressing the London audience at the Shard on Tuesday 11th October, the Champagne house’s CEO, Frédéric Rouzaud, called the launch an effort “to help lift you out of depression after Brexit”.
The wine had been released in July, before the critics had tasted the wine, offered at £1,100 per case (91.67 per bottle) by UK merchants. It is still available at this price from BI Wines & Spirits, which seems like a good deal, the cheapest of any available (see the chart below).
Scores are now in from Wine Lister’s three partner critics (Vinous, Jancis Robinson, and Bettane+Desseauve) who are unanimous in their praise of the wine. See their scores alongisde a wealth of other data and analysis below:
You can download the slide here: wine-lister-factsheet-cristal-2009
Wine Lister, the world’s first data-driven wine rating system, held its inaugural ‘Showdown’ dinner in Hong Kong on 26th May 2016, with some of the most distinguished collectors and members of the trade in attendance to have their say. To help guide its users, Wine Lister has developed four ‘Wine Lister Indicators’, two of which came head to head during this intimate dinner. Buzz Brands, the most talked-about, prestigious wines, were served blind alongside Hidden Gems, fine wines that are under the radar but worth discovering.
The Buzz Brands emerged victorious, scoring on average 18% higher than the Hidden Gems, proving that they have achieved global brand recognition for a reason – thanks to their exceptional quality.
Read the full press release here.
Left to right: Jo Purcell (Managing Director of Farr Vintners Hong Kong), Thierry Desseauve (Wine Lister partner critic), Pierre Lurton (MD of Châteaux d’Yquem and Cheval Blanc), Ella Lister (Wine Lister’s Founder & CEO), Jessica Zhang, Agnes Hon, Don Weaver (Director of Harlan Estate), Ying Hui, Jean-Philippe Lemoine, Simon Lurton, Alexandra Rendall, Michel Bettane (Wine Lister partner critic), Nelson Siu (Editor-in-Chief of WINE.Luxe), Alex Cheung.