Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Not sure if there's a previous post about this, but on average, what would you consider as the best Quality-to-Price Ratio wines (no white wines, sorry) in each of the following appellations at the present time:

1. Graves/Pessac-Leognan:
2. Margaux:
3. St. Julien:
4. Pauillac:
5. Sainte Estephe:
6. St. Emilion:
7. Pomerol:

Tough to find consensus picks in all those AOC, especially across all vintages and conditions.

In Pomerol, I'd vote for Croix du Casse and Bonalgue, the latter caveated that I've only had a small set of vintages to try.

I think the general strategy for getting quality and value is to be patient, and just buy the peak years.

The best QPR wines are outside of those appellations.

I don't think there's such a beast as QPR in Pauillac, but maybe Pichon Lalande's deuxieme is the closest I can think of: Reserve de Comtesse.

We had another bottle of Barde Haute with dinner tonite (I went out with some colleagues) and that's a popular QPR in St Emilion. It typically pleases non geeks too. That should be on the short list of someone considering a modern wine from that AOC

Taking into account everything is relative, especially QPR
Graves: Haut Bailly
Margaux: Du Tertre
St Julien: Branaire Ducru (not cheap, but for my money, a better value than Leoville Barton and Lagrange)
Pauillac: This one is hard, maybe Haut-Bages-Liberal. Pontet Canet is so expensive these days, and I wouldn't drink Grand Puy Lacoste if you paid me.
St Estephe: Lafon Rochet followed by Calon Segur
St Emilion: Barde Haut
Pomerol: Rouget

Don't know about QPR but these are decent wines at cheap in absolute terms or reasonable for pedigree prices.

Malartic Lagraviere
Tour de Mons; La Gurgue
Langoa Barton; Moulin Riche
Haut Batailley
Capbern
Barde Haut; Fonbel (many others)
Croix de Gay

How did I forget about Croix de Gay? That's a good one.

Good points also on Haut Bages Liberal in Pauillac, although I've not had any recent examples.

Some of their older ones are still pretty good.

My list is almost identical to Jacques':

Graves: Haut Bailly
Margaux: Du Tertre
St Julien: Gloria
Pauillac: Haut Bages Liberal
St Estephe: Lafon Rochet
St Emilion: Barde Haut
Pomerol: Rouget (the 1982 was my first ever Pomerol. Ups & downs since but I like its QPR)

Shoot! Gloria. Of course!

I think all of the below represent value oriented picks from within each of their respective AOC's

Graves -> Chevalier
Margaux -> Prieure Lichine
St Julien -> Talbot
Pauillac -> Clerc Milon
St Estephe -> Lafon Rochet
St Emilion -> Fleur Cardinale or Monbousquet
Pomerol -> Feytit Clinet

Very tough

Graves: SHL
Margaux: D'Issan
St-Julian: Leoville-Barton
Pauillac: Pichon Baron because it is consistently close to FG quality
St-Estephe: Sociando Mallet - I know, I know it was not a St-E
St-Emilion - Franc Mayne or Corbin
Pomerol: La Conseillante (I agree with JM Laporte it us undervalued relative to its neighbours)

Yes, tough.

St Estephe: Cos Labory (It has improved a lot recently)
Pauillac: Probably NONE is the best answer as you pay a premium for the real estate. Arguably Batailley ahead of HBL.
St Julien: Branaire Ducru, ahead of Lagrange and Gloria.
Margaux: Prieure Lichine, in my case, an old favourite for value. Also Giscours, Dufort Viviens and Malescot St E. These wines have improved a lot in last 20 yrs and I love the exotic fruit character of Margaux.
Pessac/Graves: Haut Bergey. Can be had for low price and quite good.
St Emilion: There are a lot of values here - La Dominique, Fonroque, Baude Haut, L'arrosee, Monbousquet, Clos O'ratoire, La Clotte, Fleur Cardinale, Larcis Ducasse, Moulin St Georges, Quinault L'enclos, Bellefont Belcier.
Pomerol: Forget it. Pomerols at a lower level are not worth buying. Arguably, I'd say Rouget. Have 4-5 of them in the wine fridge but seriously, a St E at the same price is better.
Haut Medoc: Hmmm. Another tough one. Poujeaux is fine at its price point, Camensac and L Tour Carnet have improved but hardly offer a bargain. Sociando Mallet is getting more expensive and less intersting. Have a case of 2010 and will wait.
Other: There are some very good wines now in Lalande Pomerol (eg Lafleur Bouard), the St Emition satellites, and Cotes de Castillion (d'Aiguilhe, Puy Arnaud)

Hi there,
just my 2 cts.
Best QPR depends on pricebaseline.
Cru classe wines hardly offer good QPR imo.
St Estephe: Capbern, Lilian Ladouys, Meyney
Pauillac: hard to say, maybe Haut Batailley
St Julien: maybe Branaire Ducru
Margaux: Labegorce, Siran
Haut Medoc: Senejac and many more
Pessac: Larrivet Haut Brion
St Emilion: Petit Gravet Aine
Pomerol: La Croix, Plince
Best
Olaf

I ran a search on Cellartracker this morning.
Criteria were Pauillac, value between $40-60, vintage between 2000-2014, sorted for Score descending.
There were a few notables which showed up on the first page at least 3 times: GPL, Duhart Milon, Batailley, Clerc Milon, Moulin de Duhart, Haut Batailley, d'Armailhac

d'Armailhac has made some good wines, and is usually under $50, which I guess makes it a QPR in the pantheon of Pauillac.

AKR wrote:d'Armailhac has made some good wines, and is usually under $50, which I guess makes it a QPR in the pantheon of Pauillac.

I tried the same search in St Estephe and lowered the value range to $30-50 to get good results.

This thread might have more legs if you set price points and ask people what they would buy at that price. What do you buy with $20, $40, $60, $80, $100, $150, $500 etc.

Yes, QPR means different things to different purses indeed.

+1

AlohaArtakaHoundsong wrote:This thread might have more legs if you set price points and ask people what they would buy at that price. What do you buy with $20, $40, $60, $80, $100, $150, $500 etc.

Fair enough. Let's say $40-60 USD

Seeing some of the votes for Prieure Lichine and D'Issan I have to say that was a tough call for me vs. Du Tertre.

Lots of good choices (as seen above). As someone mentioned above, choosing good QPR wines really depends on how much money you want to spend. I ended up listing two producers in some of the appellations.

1. Graves/Pessac-Leognan: Malartic-Lagravière and Larrivet Haut-Brion come to mind
2. Margaux: du Tertre
3. St. Julien: Branaire-Ducru edges out Gloria
4. Pauillac: Pédésclaux (especially since 2011)
5. Sainte Estèphe: Lafon Rochet, Phélan Ségur
6. St. Emilion: way too many to choose from. Fleur Cardinale, Clos des Jacobins
7. Pomerol: Gazin, Nenin