The 2019 en primeur campaign begins haltingly

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:08 pm

I only ended up buying one cheaper wine, Siran, because other wise storage becomes too much of a factor in the financial calculation.

I ended up getting in date order:

Pontet Canet, 12 x 375

Lynch Bages, 375s and 750s

Conseillante, 12 x 375

Figeac, 12 x 375

D’Issan, 12 x 375

Leoville-Barton, 12 x 375

Clinet, 6 x 750

Haut-Bailly, 3 x 750

Smith Haut-Lafite (rouge), 6 x 750

Pichon Lalande, 3 x 750 and

Siran, 6 x 750

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:23 pm

Nice haul Ian! Easy to say - we overlapped on quite a few.

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:29 pm

David I think you have five years on me, you are an inspiration, it means I might still be buying ep in 2024! Imagine how many great vintages we will have in the meantime, hypothetical clones of the best of 2016 and 2019?

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:52 pm

I can say the same about Stefan...

It's nice thinking we have the same wines resting in the cellar, but cripes it's time we got together to share some bottles in person again.

Tom In DC · Post by **Tom In DC** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:39 pm

Nice list, Claudius!

Claudius2 · Post by **Claudius2** » Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:40 pm

Guys
I am really really giving up more EP buys after this year’s campaign.
I tend to buy a lot more than I drink and have been buying EP since the 1982 vintage.
When I left Australia I had several thousand bottles and sold most - wish I’d hung onto some more as I’ve had to buy mature wines at higher prices. But things changed.
So the prices of 2019’s were hard to resist and are way below 2018 prices. The local importers are saying that they had a hard time selling 2017 and 2018 and despite the lockdowns and the like, they have done okay this year. However the Chinese and HK markets are well down and they do not expect any improvement and the future may well be worse. HK is being destroyed by China.
If you are in Europe should expect good prices for some time.
I know there are always debates over styles of wine but the average quality of Bordeaux is now very high and I have been pleasantly surprised how good many lesser Bdx (Cru bourgeois, second wines and Cru artisan) let alone classed growths which we have been quaffing in lockdown. So even good wines like Branaire, Lagrange et al came in here at lower prices I paid for the 1996’s.

marcs · Post by **marcs** » Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:14 pm

DavidG wrote:I can say the same about Stefan...

It's nice thinking we have the same wines resting in the cellar, but cripes it's time we got together to share some bottles in person again.

I have been thinking about this too. Very leery about the pandemic but wondering if it is possible to have an outdoor get together. Of course the summer heat in DC is not conducive to sharing great red wines...

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:05 pm

Going to a wine dinner at a restaurant tonight with 4 local buddies. This will be my first dine-in experience since early March.

Claudius2 · Post by **Claudius2** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:27 pm

marcs
Try living in Singapore with 95F temperature every day and high humidity.
Fuller bodied reds particularly tannic wine just never taste as good here. Wines that taste great in Europe often are disappointing unless I run the air cond at 50F and freeze. Wendy is so used to it she thinks 75F is a freezing point.
Cheers
Mark

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 1:30 pm

Ian,

I can't see La Lagune, Bourgneuf, Beausejour DL, Les Carmes Haut Brion and Phelan Segur in your purchase...

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 6:31 pm

Indeed Izak,

Can you share your final report?

One reason why I did not go for the cheaper wines is because storage costs are such an important consideration.

Maureen has asked me to advise her what to buy so I suggested Palmer, LLC, Montrose and Baron

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:17 pm

SAQ futures release from Quebec came out today and yes prices are down but after filling an order for 84 bottles and seeing the price at $4900 I pressed delete. Enough wine in the cellar and 2019 vintage at age 63.5 doesn't make sense. Pontet Canet $139 cdn which is about 100usd seems pretty good and La Lagune $65 or 40ish. I just don't see enjoying these 20 + yrs out with my gene pool unfortunately. Maybe some others will share the magic if I'm still going that far out.

Dandersson · Post by **Dandersson** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:33 pm

Dandersson wrote:Second order..

2019 Lynch-Bages 1 btl
2019 d'Armailhac 3 btls
2019 Clerc Milon 2 btls
2019 Duhart-Milon 2 btls

Third order...
2019 Leoville Barton, 2*375 ml
2019 Leoville Barton 1*750 ml
2019 Gruaud Larose 1*750 ml
2019 Lagrange, 2*750 ml
2019 Langoa Barton, 1*750 ml
2019 Talbot, 1*750 ml
2019 Grand-Puy-Lacoste, 1*375 ml
2019 Leoville Poyferre, 1*375 ml

Hopefully done now...

Best, Dan

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:40 pm

Ian,

It's not final but same place at my website. 5 samples left, among these Beauregard and Petit Village. It will be final during the coming weekend.

For me, you purchased wines with the same style and I can't see some minor ones. I would have purchased Beausejour DL instead of Lynch or Pontet Canet.

I wonder what has to be done to convince people to buy some Corbin, Phelan Segur, Meyney and Haut Marbuzet? Petit Village and Bourgneuf? La Lagune?

All people here purchase more or less the same wines.

I didn't taste L'Eglise Clinet and Les Carmes Haut Brion, La Lagune too, but purchased these. L'Eglise Clinet not only because it was the last vintage of Denis Durantou, but also because of excellent reviews. Bought Petit Village too and will taste it tomorrow. However, as last year I only buy one bottle of each. With my age and app. 700 bottles in my cellar, I won't make big purchases anymore.
.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:29 pm

dstgolf wrote:SAQ futures release from Quebec came out today and yes prices are down but after filling an order for 84 bottles and seeing the price at $4900 I pressed delete. Enough wine in the cellar and 2019 vintage at age 63.5 doesn't make sense. Pontet Canet $139 cdn which is about 100usd seems pretty good and La Lagune $65 or 40ish. I just don't see enjoying these 20 + yrs out with my gene pool unfortunately. Maybe some others will share the magic if I'm still going that far out.

Well I was too crazy to hit delete...

Danny, nothing would make me happier than sharing a few of these with you in 20 years.

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 4:20 pm

Despite significant pessimism from Alex R, I think the primer campaign went well.

I managed to taste precisely 324 barrel samples sent to my home in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a pretty new experience to taste without actually be in Bordeaux.

I think at least 25% of the samples were small estates, send by Grand Cercle and by estates themselves.

Only one 1. Growth sent a sample to me - it was Chateau Margaux.

One more barrel sample is on the way - one of my favourite wines, La Lagune.

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 6:54 pm

It went very well, and to be fair to Alex he was railing against the Jeremiahs who were proclaiming the Covid-induced death of en primeur Bordeaux futures market.

What happened to that Chinese-Australian doctor who used to post here? He is keeping a low profile.

Yes this has to be one of the most successful ever EP campaigns ever and hats off to the Bordeaux producers who priced to sell

Our good friend Alfred T started the ball rolling and deserves enormous credit.

I persuaded MEK to go in with Palmer, LLC, Montrose and GPL.

Izak - Lagune will probably slip in but at the price I am not sure I want to pay for ten years of storage.

Will it drink well young?

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:06 pm

Nah, don't buy La Lagune. Silly purchase. Why bother? It only carries a Haut-Medoc appellation, after all. Especially avoid all earlier vintages. Except maybe for 2013, if you like Cabernet Sauvignon. Stay away from La Lagune at auctions. People selling it probably stored the wine in the garage.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:07 pm

What happened to that Chinese-Australian doctor who used to post here? He is keeping a low profile.

I banned him, Ian, after he was trolling us over Covid. I can't remember the last time I banned someone from BWE.

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:59 pm

stefan wrote:Nah, don't buy La Lagune. Silly purchase. Why bother? It only carries a Haut-Medoc appellation, after all. Especially avoid all earlier vintages. Except maybe for 2013, if you like Cabernet Sauvignon. Stay away from La Lagune at auctions. People selling it probably stored the wine in the garage.

You know I love La Lagune stefan, but you think about the math...your strong point...I buy a case for £300 and it costs me a minimum of £12 a year to store it, or 4% a year. Most of these wines start to take off price wise after a few years, so that is why I am hedging my bets with 2019 ‘gune. When you spend two, three, four times that much the storage is less of a consideration...

Jim I didn’t realise you had given the Chinese doctor his marching orders...it would have been fun to watch him eat his words.

And the more I learn about coronavirus the more I suspect it came from a laboratory rather than a wet market

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:27 pm

Any word on how the 2010 La Lagune is doing?

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:50 pm

David - stefan opened one at our last zoom - my bad - and regretted it. Hence my hesitation with the 2019, to park the cash down now. But given I bought Siran I will probably do the right thing with the ‘gune. Afterall, rationality and wine buying are unlikely bedfellows in the short-term, but it usually works out well on a longer-term horizon.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:12 pm

greatbxfreak wrote:Ian,

It's not final but same place at my website. 5 samples left, among these Beauregard and Petit Village. It will be final during the coming weekend.

For me, you purchased wines with the same style and I can't see some minor ones. I would have purchased Beausejour DL instead of Lynch or Pontet Canet.

I wonder what has to be done to convince people to buy some Corbin, Phelan Segur, Meyney and Haut Marbuzet? Petit Village and Bourgneuf? La Lagune?

All people here purchase more or less the same wines.

I didn't taste L'Eglise Clinet and Les Carmes Haut Brion, La Lagune too, but purchased these. L'Eglise Clinet not only because it was the last vintage of Denis Durantou, but also because of excellent reviews. Bought Petit Village too and will taste it tomorrow. However, as last year I only buy one bottle of each. With my age and app. 700 bottles in my cellar, I won't make big purchases anymore.
.

I'd say that Phelan Segur would likely get more interest if the wines were priced more like other AOC non classifieds. The 2016 is on the shelf at local stores at $80, and perhaps after discounting maybe one can get it down to $45 via mail order or something. But its not obvious to me that its worth a huge premium over Haut Marbuzet.

Petit Village is another estate which has pushed their pricing up, basically going from $50 to $75 or so, at least in our market. And it was always an estate which had a narrow fan base here, at least it seemed to me. The only people I knew who seemed to buy it were CabFan and HoundSong. Maybe the wines are better, and pricing is just following steplike with neighbors, but maybe a gradual ascent for the entry ticket might have smarter long term. I did buy a single 2016 to see what the changes are like, but that was only after release.

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:27 pm

It was a waste to open the 2010 La Lagune, David. Probably the 2020 is better for drinking now.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:58 pm

Thanks, I’ll wait on the 10 La Lagune.

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:33 am

I placed an order for some 2019. Waiting confirmation, will say more then.

Nic

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:40 am

Nic,

Some reasonable prices at the SAQ but can't justify the spend for something that's going to take 15 yrs for me to enjoy at this age. I'd be all in at your age though. Look forward to hearing what you were allotted.

Claudius2 · Post by **Claudius2** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 5:53 am

Izak
I really enjoy your blog and hope you continue. Your notes seem to make more sense to me than most.
I do understand your point about sameness.
From this campaign, I have bought two Pessacs, 4 St Emilions but no Pomerols, two Haut Medocs (old favs Sociando Mallet and La Lagune), one Pauillac, two St Juliens, and four Margauxs.
These days I am looking for some value and try and buy some wines that float under the radar of the world's big spenders AND give me enough variety to experience different characters.
Further, I have bought some wines for the very first time, and have never even tried Malarctic Lagraviere.
I bought nothing from St Estephe as the wines I like from there (Cos, Montrose, Calon Segur) are now getting too expensive for my wallet. And some of the others you mentioned (eg, Meyney, Haut Marbuzet) are hardly seen here.
I also can't find much value in Pomerol but have nothing against the region.

Not too sure if some of the comments here about La Lagune are just tongue in cheek, but it has always been a favourite to me.
The estate made very good wines in the eighties but I think it went off form in the 90's and I stopped buying it. I did buy case lots of 09 and 10 which will rest in the storage unit for some time longer.

In Singapore, freight, duties, taxes, customs clearance et al add substantially to the cost of wines.
For Cru Bourgeois or similar, the prices effectively double.
So i really think that EP purchases of the cheaper wines are poor value.
I have found that I can pick these up retail on clearance sales at lower prices.
For example, I bought several cases of CB's, second wines and lesser classified growths (eg, Ferriere, Cos Labory) on clearance and got good vintages are way below the total landed EP cost.
Decent CB's and second wines were picked up for $20-30 (about E13-22) which from memory, is about the cost in French liquor stores and supermarkets.

Having said that, Bordeaux wine is generally a reasonably good value unless the buyer wants the top estates or trophy wines.
Yet beyond the top estate, I think Bordeaux is a hard sell. There are several thousand small producers who can't attract big prices irrespective of the wine - unless they are very good marketers.

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:38 am

Claudius2,

Bourgneuf is a very wise choice in Pomerol. Me, Jane Anson, Yves Beck and Antonio Galloni are very happy for it. Neal Martin, James Suckling and Jeff Leve are less enthusiastic, but still rating it between 92-94p. Petit Village is a wise choice too and cheaper than 2018.

Saint-Estephe is one of the most successful districts in 2019. Phelan Segur has got great reviews. In Denmark it costs app. 37 Euros per bottle all included.

Claudius2 · Post by **Claudius2** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:27 pm

Isak
I will note your comments.
It has been many yrs since I have had Phelan Segur or Bourgneuf and they have been off my radar for some yrs.
I think Petit Village has had a rather variable record and I think there have been ownership changes in recent decades. I visited the Chateau (which is Petit) in 2000 and I have to admit I found the few samples I tried were a bit disappointing. I just wish I could try the wines before buying as I have to rely on reviews.

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:10 pm

Claudius2

https://www.greatbordeauxwines.com/chat ... it-village

New winemaker since 2015 vintage - Diane Garcia Berrouet, sister-in-law to Olivier Berrouet from Petrus. She came instead of Marielle Cazaux, now La Conseillante. Quality since 2015 vintage has jumped up significantly!

Bourgneuf and Phelan Segur have made equally excellent efforts in 2019 to 2018 or maybe exceeding it.

Danish wine merchants don't offer Meyney and Haut Marbuzet en primeur and if I want to buy in Bordeaux (chateauprimeur=Duclot), I've to buy a minimum of 3 bottles. I want only one bottle of each.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:39 pm

The last time I bought Haut Marbuzet EP I had a 3btl min rule imposed by the vendor too.

Meyney does seem to be quite popular on this board, but it may not need to be purchased ahead of time since there is a large production, and current releases aren't going to attract speculators.

Claudius2 · Post by **Claudius2** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 12:45 pm

Izak
Seems like Petit Village is now getting the love and attention to detail that it deserves.
None of the local importers handle it unfortunately but I’ll make an effort to try it next time in Bordeaux - though I am starting to go nuts with the lockdowns here.

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 1:55 pm

Don't worry Danny. We'll have some 2019 together, before they are 20 years old.

Nic

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:25 am

Finally got my 2019 allocation confirmed:

No Pontet Canet, no Giscours

2 Lynch Bages (to open with Jim one day)
2 Branaire Ducru (to compare with the 2018)
3 Nénin (I needed something made by Delon)
3 Montlandrie (in memory of Mr Durantou)
3 Malartic Lagravière (price was too good)
3 Cantemerle (to open one young with Danny)
3 d'Issan (comte flaneur enablement)
2 Haut Bailly (to remind me i brought the 1990 at the first BWE convention).

I'll probably put another order for a few more bottles, or change my mind and look to buy some more 2016 or some red Bourgogne.

Nic

Antoine · Post by **Antoine** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 4:20 pm

I went long on Bordeaux 2019 mainly with half bottles:
12 halves packs of
- Clinet
- La Gaffeliere
- Branaire Ducru
- Chevalier rouge
3 bottles of Canon (St Emilion) . I quite liked a box of 1998 and managed to buy 3 bottles of the 2015.

Funny, Isak did not taste any of my right banks while praising the Pessac L and St Julien.

Ian, if ever you consider parting with a couple of halves of PLL and/or Figeac, do not hesitate (I just could not afford 12 of any of these but they were among my preferred picks...). Cash or exchange.

I have been agonising on one more case of left bank halves but could not resolve myself to make a choice...

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:58 pm

Antoine I would be happy to share some Figeac and I would recommend D’Issan as per Nic and also at 13.37% abv it is one of the lowest in the vintage and when I tried it I was immediately smitten.

greatbxfreak · Post by **greatbxfreak** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:27 pm

Antoine,

Clinet and Canon didn't answer on my request of sending barrel samples of 2019 to Copenhagen, while I didn't write such a request to La Gaffeliere.

If you check out my website, I have tasted 98 Saint-Emilions and 20 Pomerols plus some samples from sub communes.

Nicklasss · Post by **Nicklasss** » Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:30 pm

Additionnal confirmations:

3 x 2019 La Lagune (greatbxfreak enablement, and i don't know why, i like Mrs Frey...)
3 x 2019 Grand-Puy Lacoste (to see if the guy at MacArthur was right, saying GPL is back on track since a few vintages asthe daugther took charge of the production).

Nic