2014 Rauzan, Canon, Pontet-Canet, St-Pierre, Haut-Bailly

Not surprisingly, today is a bank holiday in France. The past couple of days have seen the big name releases of Pontet-Canet, Saint-Pierre, Haut-Bailly, Larcis Ducasse and Pavie-Macquin. And Tuesday's rumour of Lafite did indeed turn out to have substance - though not much. The chateau released a very small amount of wine at a supposedly modest price. The trouble is, it's so small that most negociants aren't offering it until the second tranche comes along - at a different price. On top of this, the Rothschilds continue to play the Rieussec game - which isn't doing anything to boost their popularity.

By contrast, one can only imagine that the Wertheimer family like to be popular at dinner parties. Yesterday they released plenty of stock of both of their properties at very reasonable prices. Requests for Rauzan-Segla were flooding in even before it appeared on our website yesterday morning. It is not generally known that properties within each division of the 1855 Classification were ranked in quality order. Rauzan was second of the seconds, behind only Mouton-Rothschild. Since John Kolasa joined (from Latour) in 1994, it has regained much of that glory, and regularly rivals Palmer in quality - while trouncing it in value. The 2014 is a charmer: perfumed, silky, intense and pure - the essence of Margaux. John must also take much of the credit for the resurgence of the family's St-Emilion, Canon. Like its stablemate, this isn't a flamboyant, flashy kind of wine, but elegant and classy. The 2014 was one of our favourites on the right bank, perhaps boosted by its 28% Cabernet Franc.

Sadly, this is John's final vintage before retiring. As if sending a message to his peers, he marks the event with superb wines priced extremely fairly. The question is, are they listening? /CW

Click here to view all 2014 Bordeaux; click on the individual wine name in the table below to see tasting notes

Offered subject to confirmation for shipment spring 2017