2018 Bordeaux: some firm favourites

23 May 2019

Leoville-Barton, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Chevaliers

Some notable, high-scoring releases over the last two days. Yesterday kicked off with Leoville-Barton, 'hitting it out of the park' for Jane Anson, 'fabulous' for Galloni. Then the opulent, elegant Grand-Puy-Lacoste - 'impeccable' for Galloni, one of his (and my) 'highlights of the year'. The second wine here, Lacoste-Borie, is also extremely impressive in its own right. Then we saw St-Emilion's La Dominique, jumped back to the Medoc for the excellent value St-Estephe Le Crock, before landing in St-Julien for Moulin Riche and traditionally-styled Talbot.

This morning we started with the impressive Gruaud Larose - owner Jean Merlaut was delighted with everything about his wine except the low volume. The second wine here, Sarget de Gruaud Larose, is also very good. Also today, we have Canon and Rauzan-Segla. These two are heavily oversubscribed, but if you are a previous purchaser, don't worry, we'll be in touch as soon as we have finalised our position. We also have Canon's neighbour, Berliquet, another high-wire act recently brought into Nicolas Audebert's stable and given his magic touch. For now, this remains publicly available.

Most recently, we have Domaine de Chevalier. The red here gets high scores across the board. Olivier Bernard rates it as possibly his very best, the power of 2010 with the roundness of 2009. Galloni calls it 'breathtakingly beautiful', 'simply majestic'. As for the white, the aftertaste is so persistent it stopped me halfway through a conversation. /NT

View all wines released so far

Offered subject to confirmation; for shipment 2021

Vintage Description Cs Sz Bt Sz Cs Bts Cs ib Cs inc Bt inc
2018 young Grand-Puy-Lacoste (Pauillac)
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6x 75cl 1 0 £225.00 - - Buy
2018 young Leoville Barton (St-Julien)
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6x 75cl 2 0 £300.00 - - Buy