Bordeaux 2019: fast and furious

Leoville Barton, Brane-Cantena

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It has been such a fast and furious few days on the Bordeaux front that there have been times when it has been hard to keep up, so apologies if we have been slow in responding to any of you. The campaign may have started late, but the Bordelais have been making up for lost time; a sense of momentum has been as much a hallmark of this campaign as the unusual circumstances and the very welcome price reductions. At this rate it will be over in another 10 days - what will we all do then?

Leoville Barton has been the most popular release of the last 48 hours. This much-loved St-Julien is a perennial favourite, and one of the classics of the region. Lilian Barton lauds the wonderful growing season they enjoyed here, and the 'subtly big tannins' that make this a wine that could be drunk young, but will 'probably last forever'. But I must confess a vested interest here, as it was Leoville Barton that converted my wife to fine wine. At the same time, we saw stablemate Langoa Barton - very differently styled from its sibling, almost as good, and not much more than half the price. Among yesterday's other signal releasees were Ausone, Pichon Baron (both sold out), Gonzague Lurton's biodynamic Durfort-Vivens, and Meyney, the value St-Estephe that's good at fooling blind tasters into thinking it's Montrose.

First releases today were those of the debonair Comte Stephan van Neipperg - d'Aiguilhe from Castillon and the St-Emilion trio of Clos de l'Oratoire, Canon-la-Gaffeliere and La Mondotte. Then three high-scoring and heavily oversubscribed ones - Clinet, Margaux and Ducru Beaucaillou - which are currently allocated to previous buyers. After lunch two long-time favourites from Margaux. Brane-Cantenac is scarcer than usual: Henri Lurton has restricted it to only the most privileged plots on the 'plateau de Brane' to make 'one of the top vintages of [his] life.' Siran is described as 'seriously good' by Neal Martin. I'll add 'value' on to that. In fact Margaux is doing very well on value picks this year; consider also yesterday's Labegorce (potentially 'very serious', 93-95 NM) or 'fast-improving' Cantenac-Brown (94-96 NM). /NT

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Offered subject to confirmation; for shipment 2022