Monday 29 April
The first of the First Growths to be released in the 2024 Bordeaux campaign has arrived this morning: Lafite is released at an impressive 30% drop in price on last year’s price, and the cheapest release price since the 2014 vintage. Always among the most profound wines of Bordeaux, the 2024 is as monumental and elusive as ever, stony and enigmatic en primeur, but clearly possessed of a profound depth that will take time to fully reveal itself. Tightly wound, it leaves an impressively long finish of salty cassis. It is the first vintage of Lafite to be certified as organic, despite the challenges of a vintage that saw some chateaux step back from organic viticulture to save their crop. Lafite is one of the great wines of Bordeaux from one of the very greatest terroirs.
Where Lafite is 96% Cabernet this vintage, the second wine Carruades has a much higher proportion of Merlot. It has some of the same sense of salty minerality that Lafite expresses, set against a more open aspect of plum and rose.
Also released, we have stablemate Duhart-Milon. From contiguous terroir to Lafite, with the same fine gravels and black sands over a bedrock of limestone, but on lower ground with a more northerly exposure. Once upon a time it was made as the second wine of Lafite. For even longer it remained in the shadow of Lafite. But it has evolved an identity all its own, with a team all its own since 2001, and has gone from strength to strength over the last two decades. The 2024 is muscular, powerful, with not an inch of wasted fat. It leaves a lingering impression of cassis imbued with sea air. It is released at a 20% discount on last year’s price.
Gruaud Larose has occupied almost exactly the same sprawling 82-hectare vineyard since 1855, when it was ranked it as a Second Growth. You can get a fabulous view of the vineyards either rolling away towards the forest, or else down to the river, from the huge viewing tower that the chateau has installed a little incongruously on the St-Julien plain. It is great terroir: in wet 2024, fine gravel soils let excess water drain easily while the wind from the river dried the vines, meaning the mildew here was less harsh than at some estates. They achieved a dense and impressively powerful 2024 marked by elegant tannins and a real flash of energy. It is released at a 28% discount on last year’s price.
Angludet has always made a fine ambassador for the elegant, aromatic style of wine we associate with Margaux. Owner, resident and winemaker Ben Sichel likes to joke that the decision to go entirely over to biodynamics was as much about his own health as that of the vineyard - although he may have had second thoughts given the extra work involved. And it was definitely a struggle in 2024. Nevertheless, he has achieved an excellent result in 2024, fighting the vintage to make a wine with body and length. It has been raised 60% in barrel, and 40% in amphorae, the latter accentuating the sense of purity and freshness in the wine.
Thursday 24 April
There is a crown on each corner of the Branaire-Ducru label, alluding to the noble families of four previous owners. Things have been quietly at this St-Julien fourth growth. There is a whole new cellar with double the number of vats, allowing a much more precise approach to plot-by-plot vinification. The winery is gravity-fed. Yields have been cut back even as the vineyard has been slightly expanded.
Unlike many Bordeaux chateau owners, François-Xavier Maroteaux is an understated fellow. But he couldn’t help but looked pleased with himself when he showed us his 2024. ‘It was a vintage when you needed to harvest at the perfect date for each plot. It’s expensive work to be so precise!’ Despite the costs, 2024 Branaire-Ducru is released this morning at a 17% discount on last year’s price. It’s a classy wine with energy, fine tannins, and a lifted finish - and it’s hard to imagine a better glass of St-Julien typicité at the price.
Wednesday 23 April
Pontet-Canet has been a trailblazer. It was one of the very first classed growths to convert to biodynamic viticulture, no easy thing in damp Bordeaux. It led the way in innovations that have since become widespread, including plot-by-plot vinification and amphorae for raising the wine. It is released today at a 9% discount on last year's price. Writing today on robertparker.com, William Kelley has scored it as one of the joint top wines of the vintage.
Tuesday 22 April
There used to be a bit of a gap between our en primeur tasting week and the first releases, but no more. Last week we were tasting 2024s in Bordeaux, and this morning sees the first release of the campaign - Pauillac classic and staunch Uncorked favourite Chateau Batailley. From its extremely gravelly spot on the plateau, Batailley has achieved a long-standing reputation for offering absolute Pauillac typicity at a very fair price. 2024 saw the property celebrate 100 years in the hands of the Borie-Castéja family, and the 2024 vintage is released with a special anniversary label - not to mention the possibility to buy single boxed bottles in the chubby 225cl Marie-Jeanne format, for a bit of table theatre. The roots of this property go back much further than 100 years; the name evokes one of the last French-English battles of the Hundred Years War, which took place on the site of the modern vineyards.
