Lagrange vertical in DC

[stefan]

I checked average WineSearcherPro prices for the 2010 vintage. They seem representative.

Gruaud Larose $100
Branaire Ducru 90
Lagrange 74
D'Armailhac 69

[danzur]

So-let's say you had $300 burning a hole in your pocket-would you buy (3) Gruaud, (3) Branaire, (4) Lagrange, or (4) d'Armailhac? Or some combo?

[Blanquito]

Probably Branaire.

[stefan]

Probably I would buy 1 of each. Or, having decided to pay more than what I think the price should be, maybe I would buy three of each. I like all four estates and the relative pricing looks about right to me. Or maybe I would just buy 4 or 12 bottles of 2010 La Lagune, which has an average WineSearcherPro price of $80 (while regretting that The Bob raised the price of L-L with his review of the 2005).

[DavidG]

3 Gruaud.

[Racer Chris]

I already have one each of 2010 Gruaud Larose, D'Armailhac, and Lagrange. I paid $90, 58, 60 respectively.
It looks like I need to buy all of the available Branaire at my local Total Wine, at a price of $81. It has the best CT average score from users who I am a Fan of.
TW shows it in limited supply, meaning no more than two available. Another Gruaud and another D'Armailhac looks like the best way to spend my $300.
I would consider another Lagrange but it isn't available to me at TW. All of them look like worthy wines in that vintage and at their relative price points, based on credible tasting notes.

Edited to add: I can get the Lagrange in Norwalk for $67.50. Too far to drive to pay that price relative to the others being available locally.

[JimHow]

3 Gruaud.

[marcs]

I wouldn't use back vintages for pricing comparisons. A good back vintage will already have the relative quality of the wines priced in to it based on consumer demand, and will be less representative of the Chateau pricing policy than a recent vintage. Also, the minimum prices on Winesearcher are more informative than the averages.

Look at the widely available minimum prices on the 2015s for example:

Lagrange $45-49 (a Zachys sale at $45, other bottles are at $49+)
Branaire $56
Gruaud $68

So it's about a $10 difference between Branaire and Lagrange, $20 for Gruaud. This is consistent for other recent years.

For a $10 difference I'd take Branaire for sure, and likely would spring for the Gruaud.

But I don't drink wine every night and usually get only 3-6 bottles, not a case, so my equation might differ from others.

BTW, my reaction to liking the 2015 Lagrange the other night was to go out and buy a three pack of 2015 Malescot for about $10 more a bottle. The vintage style in 2015 was quite 2009-like and Malescot knocked my socks off in 2009!

[Racer Chris]

So-let's say you had $300 burning a hole in your pocket-would you buy (3) Gruaud, (3) Branaire, (4) Lagrange, or (4) d'Armailhac? Or some combo?

I have more than $300 burning a hole in my wallet, so I just filled a shopping cart with: 1 '10 Gruaud Larose, 2 '10 Branaire Ducru, 1 '10 D'Armailhac, 1 '14 Domaine de Chevalier, 2 '15 Pierre de Montignac for an all in (tax included) price of $425.78.
I'll report back once I've been to the store.

[jal]

Definitely 3 Branaire

[Nicklasss]

I would probably go with one of each Saint-Julien.

A wiser choice would be three 2010 GPL. ):-0

Nic

[DavidG]

Jim wants to fight you Nic.

[AKR]

I always thought 1990 was my favorite Lagrange, but that vintage is one I love across so many properties.

[Claret]

I really liked 89, 90 and 96. I have a bunch of 96 left. I have one untasted 86. I wonder if it is ready now.

[Racer Chris]

I'll report back once I've been to the store.

Done.
No DdC left in Manchester so I only bought the other 6 bottles.
One of the managers,Roy, told me he can pick up an order for me in Norwalk next Tuesday if I want. They have 10 of the '14 DdC on their shelf.
There's a few other things I also want from the Norwalk store so I might take him up on it. I don't plan on heading that way any time soon and TW doesn't do store-to-store transfers for customers.

[jckba]

Chris,

Another option is talking to someone there or in their concierge sales dept b/c they both have the ability to check and see if they have more of whatever wine in their warehouse and if so, they can ship it out to your desired store and save you a trip.

[Racer Chris]

I was told there's none in the warehouse, and I was told they won't deliver from one store to another. I have more than 150 bottles of 2014s already.
Norwalk does have 2015 D'issan, Kirwan, and Domaine de Chevalier in stock. I'm hoping they'll bring those to Manchester soon though.
But, I'm already overbudget for the month (after going 100% overbudget last month) so I may put it off anyway.

[jckba]

I was there last week and that actually caught my eye

[jckba]

Sorry for the thread drift.

Coming back to Lagrange, nice impressions in the opening post Marc and you can count me as another person who is generally unimpressed with the wine, granted my experiences are limited to small pours at the UGC each year but I just never find the wine interesting enough to buy. And you can count Saint Pierre in the same breath.