En Primeur News : Thursday, 24th May 2012

After our favourite left bank wine (Latour) was released this morning we are delighted to announce the release of our favourite right bank wine. Even more so because (Finally !!!) we have a great wine to offer at below our low estimate price. 2011 is at its best in Pomerol and the best 2011 Pomerol that we tasted was Château L’Eglise Clinet from the brilliant Denis Durantou. If you only want to buy one wine in 2011 then Eglise Clinet is the wine for you. At £1150 it’s cheaper than the 2008 vintage, it has great scores from all the critics (Robert Parker scores it above Petrus again and Tim Atkin MW gives it 96 points). The small production of 1000 cases means that it will be difficult to find it after bottling. Eglise Clinet is one of the very few 2011’s that we can wholeheartedly recommend.

Big news this morning with the release of two of Bordeaux's most legendary wines Chateau Latour and Chateau Cheval Blanc. This is the last vintage of Latour that will be sold en primeur as they have announced that, from the 2012 vintage onwards, they won't put the wine on the market until it's ready to drink. With massive, strapping Cabernet Sauvignon based wines produced here, that could be a long wait!

The price of Latour is £4800 and stocks will probably have to be allocated. If you have not pre-ordered you'll need to contact us immediately if you'd like to get your hands on the last en primeur vintage of Latour. Likewise for the excellent Les Forts de Latour which is available at the lowest price in the market today for any vintage of this wine - £1200.

The owners of Cheval Blanc are business rivals of the owner of Latour and would love to compete on price and demand but sadly they can't. Cheval Blanc is delicious in 2011 but at £4500 you can buy the magnificent 1998 vintage from us and for £1000 less we have the 2006, 1995, 2001, 2003, 1999 etc etc the list goes on. Why on earth they think that our customers will pay more for an en primeur vintage than ready-to-drink vintages of the same quality is beyond us. The Petit Cheval is £1200 (more expensive than the 2005 and 2009!). Customers who were going to buy this would be far better off with la Conseillante, from vines touching these, at £780.

Sadly another wine that is wrongly priced is Canon at £660. This is a beautiful Saint Emilion of great purity and class but we sell the 2005 at £680 so can't see a reason to buy the 2011 today

Also in Saint Emilion we have the controversial blockbuster wines of Gerard Perse. Pavie is £1200, Pavie Decesse £900 and Bellevue Mondotte £1150. Well at least they are cheaper than Petit Cheval ;-)