Day 5
An extra half an hour in bed, as our first stop of the day at Chateau d’Issan was scheduled for a very reasonable 8:30am… Here we tasted four wines. Blason d’Issan and Chateau d’Issan were beautifully concentrated, yet still very much Margaux in style and elegance. Pédesclaux is one of our wines to watch, bordering Mouton and Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac it’s normally released around the £400 mark. Thumbs up here, much more masculine in style, with the trademark Pauillac gravel infused spice.
From here, we dashed across to Palmer, which was so impressive. However, there was an incredibly small production with only 11 hectolitres due to biodynamic practices, which saw both mildew and storms seriously affect the yield. No Alter Ego was produced this year.
With an hour before our appointment at Margaux, we had time to attend the UGC tasting at Chateau Dauzac where there was an impressive array of Margaux wines. My favourite was Brane-Cantenac, though, I also loved Du Tertre, as it had gorgeous elegance and balance, true to its roots. Giscours was excellent, lots of power and if I’d been given it blind, would've called it a Pauillac. Labegorce was excellent and Malescot St Exupery was both modern and seductive.
Our next stop was Chateau Margaux, which lived up to its first class pedigree. Pavillon Rouge is probably at the same level as the Grand Vin was 20 years ago. We quickly popped in at Rauzan-Ségla to taste the superb Grand Vin, as well as their second wine, Ségla (not released En Primeur). We then headed to Durfort-Vivens to taste their Grand Vin as well as Haut-Bages Libéral, which is under the same family ownership, before they kindly gave us a bite to eat.
Before I could get too comfortable and devour the canelé, reputed to be one of the best pastries in Bordeaux, we had the twenty minute drive to Fonréaud in Listrac, for the UGC Médoc. Our highlights were; Beaumont, Cantemerle, Poujeaux and Chasse-Spleen. From there it was a forty-five minute rush to Pessac near the city of Bordeaux, where we had little over half an hour to taste both Pessac-Léognan reds and whites. Short on time, we divided our manpower so that we could taste everything in the room. The winner for the reds by a country mile was the Carmes de Haut Brion. Both Malartic-Lagravière and Haut Bergey showed really well. Our Star Value Buy for this commune will likely be Pique-Caillou. The surprise for the whites was Larrivet Haut-Brion Blanc.
Fortunately, Haut Bailly was just two minutes down the road where we tried their other property Le Pape (which is not released En Primeur) as well as their rebranded second wine, Haut Bailly II (we think this could be focused for the American market). Haut Bailly has made a good wine this year, yet doesn’t have the power and density to make our top 10.
Our final First Growth of the 2018 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign was La Mission Haut-Brion. A bit of a stand off between what we liked best - Andrew backed La Mission as the front runner, while I felt the Haut-Brion had the edge by a short nose.
Final stop of the day was at Smith Haut Lafitte, the Grand Vin wines (both red and white) really stood out. Many thanks to the team at SHL who waited for us after we got stuck in traffic in the infamous Bordeaux rocade rush hour and didn’t arrive until 6:30pm.
A more casual day awaits tomorrow as we head down to Sauternes and then to Pape Clement before our late afternoon flight to the UK to dry out...
If you are interested in En Primeur but haven't yet taken the plunge, read our introduction to buying En Primeur wine. If you would also like to receive emails on En Primeur, please email wine@bcfw.co.uk to be added to our distribution list.
