Pauillac
The aristocrat of the Médoc boasts 75 percent of the region’s First Growths, with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of production. Pauillac's First Growths each have their own unique characteristics: Ch. Lafite Rothschild produces the region’s most aromatically-complex and subtly-flavoured wine, while – with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon – Ch. Mouton Rothschild can produce a decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.
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Chateau Batailley,
Drink now,
Deriving its name from a battle fought here between the British and French six centuries ago, this popular wine has not disappointed its legion of fans in 2003. The wonderfully ripe Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) is softened by 28% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot. A rich, fruity nose is followed by a palate with Batailley's characteristic weight and reassuringly dense, textured red and black fruit, creamy oak and a very long finish. Excellent value, as always.
For laying down,
Located in the very south of the Pauillac appellation, this property shares a similar climate to that enjoyed by the Médoc: maritime, with the Gironde estuary and the Bay of Biscay combining to act as a climate regulator, while the coastal pine forests shelter the vines from the westerly and north-westerly winds.
This delightfully rewarding wine comes from a classic vintage. Cassis and cherry mix gracefully with smoke, cedar and spice. The tannins are fine-grained but offer a little grip, while the palate is fresh with a smooth, lingering finish. Drink now to 2028.
This delightfully rewarding wine comes from a classic vintage. Cassis and cherry mix gracefully with smoke, cedar and spice. The tannins are fine-grained but offer a little grip, while the palate is fresh with a smooth, lingering finish. Drink now to 2028.
Chateau Pichon Baron,
Ready, but will keep,
The wines of Château Pichon-Longueville-Baron are among the glossiest and most succulent of Pauillac and Les Tourelles de Longueville, the property’s second wine, is a delicious expression of this in miniature. The fruit, led by Merlot, is accessible, juicy and supple, with creamy vanilla from 30% new oak providing the base. The use of oak at this château is always exemplary; the class of this wine is unmistakable. The château harvests from vines on the sandier parts of its vineyard to make a wine that is accessible quite early, but there is ample material here to last a decade. Drink 2019-2026.
Chateau Batailley,
Ready, but will keep,
Holy Frijoles! They have done it again! A sumptuous, sophisticated triumph! Last year I described it (and was mocked mercilessly by colleagues in BB&R, the UK and International Trade) as an attractive woman fulfilling her potential and going out on the town in a little black dress. So much so, people called in asking for the “little black dress wine”! Now, I’m not going to say that 2011 Batailley is better than 2010, because last years was brilliant, but in the context of this vintage it’s as good. Real sweetness, charm, finesse, but with a beautiful Pauillac oomph! Equal to or surpasses in quality wines that will be twice to ten times its price. It’s bottles, magnums and double magnums time again I fear. This time she’s going out again but wearing Prada and Jimmy Choos!
Simon Staples, Berrys’ Fine Wine Director
Simon Staples, Berrys’ Fine Wine Director
Chateau Batailley,
For laying down,
Ch. Batailley is one of our (and our customers') perennial favourites, and in 2006 this is once again one of the best value wines in Bordeaux. It is quintessential Pauillac with layers of creamy, ripe blackcurrant and plum fruit and hints of mint. Batailley's 2006 is not a blockbuster but it is rich, generous and stylish for the vintage and should age extremely well. Another triumph from owner Philippe Castéja.
Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste,
Ready, but will improve,
My second placed wine, and also second in the Pauillac flight behind Ch. Pichon-Baron. Lightness of touch here. Cleanly made but with traditional restraint – nothing pushed. Cedary and savoury, with freshness and detail on the finish. Real style and breed. Fantastically drinkable. I can’t stress enough what a bargain this is – it is absurdly cheap for those people that want to drink proper Bordeaux in 6 or 7 years’ time.
Philip Moulin, Fine Wine Buyer
Pretty close to the top of my list of personal buys from the vintage. Fabulous intensity, purity and complexity combination, all lying within a dense red fruit core that seems endless on the finish. Xavier, I don’t know quite know what you have done over the last few vintages but please keep it up. A cellar must have!
Simon Staples - Sales Director, Asia
Philip Moulin, Fine Wine Buyer
Pretty close to the top of my list of personal buys from the vintage. Fabulous intensity, purity and complexity combination, all lying within a dense red fruit core that seems endless on the finish. Xavier, I don’t know quite know what you have done over the last few vintages but please keep it up. A cellar must have!
Simon Staples - Sales Director, Asia
Chateau Batailley,
Ready, but will improve,
The 2010 Batailley wine is absolutely brilliant! I might just leave the note at that actually. Batailley is always faithful and true and it always delivers a great glass of proper Paulliac without pomp or fan fairs. It is not pretentious and you know (really, really hope this year) that you won't have to sell a vital organ or precious family heirloom to afford a glass of it.
This is text-book Bordeaux: safe, steady, dependable and we all love it for it. It is brimming with perfectly ripe, but not pushed, delicious Cabernet Sauvignon fruit. It is indulgent but with great poise and presence, and a sumptuous, cool and deliciously long finish. This is the first wine on my personal ‘To Buy’ list.
Simon Staples, Fine Wine Director
This is text-book Bordeaux: safe, steady, dependable and we all love it for it. It is brimming with perfectly ripe, but not pushed, delicious Cabernet Sauvignon fruit. It is indulgent but with great poise and presence, and a sumptuous, cool and deliciously long finish. This is the first wine on my personal ‘To Buy’ list.
Simon Staples, Fine Wine Director
Chateau Pontet-Canet,
For laying down,
I may sound like a broken record but Ch. Pontet-Canet is right at the top of the tree now. Not only performing at Super Second level, in my view this 2012 eclipses two of its illustrious First growth neighbours in Pauillac. There is no doubt that the bio-dynamic farming pays off in the tougher years and there is an underlying energy and life to this wine that few others have.
Very pure cassis and blackcurrant fruit is offered, with so much weight, power and mint like freshness to the nose. The palate offers density and sweetness of fruit that is unmatched in any other wine, with sweet black fruit and a spiced cedar edge that guides you to the back of the palate. Their is a real underlying precision, detail and freshness here once again. It doesn't have the structure or complexity of the really legendary years but once again Pontet-Canet lead the pack. This is certainly one to add to your cellar, as Alfred Tesseron begins to notch up more hits than the Rolling Stones.
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team
Very pure cassis and blackcurrant fruit is offered, with so much weight, power and mint like freshness to the nose. The palate offers density and sweetness of fruit that is unmatched in any other wine, with sweet black fruit and a spiced cedar edge that guides you to the back of the palate. Their is a real underlying precision, detail and freshness here once again. It doesn't have the structure or complexity of the really legendary years but once again Pontet-Canet lead the pack. This is certainly one to add to your cellar, as Alfred Tesseron begins to notch up more hits than the Rolling Stones.
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team
For laying down,
Ch. Clerc-Milon is more masculine and serious than its stablemate Ch. d’Armailhac this year. Showing a menthol, redcurrant bramble note on the nose, it also has a lovely mocha edge from the oak that adds complexity. The palate has a weight of fruit and flesh that so many wines in the Médoc seem to be lacking, while the tannins are fine with a sweetness that really adds to the mouthfeel. Plump, multi-layered fruit is joined by a lovely spicy edge to the creamy oak on the finish. It is certainly one of the better wines in Pauillac this year.
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team
Ready, but will keep,
Belonging to the Mouton stable, and with a prestigious location right next to both Mouton and Lafite, Ch. Clerc Milon is a fresher, lighter style of 2008 which has a delicious hint of creamy raspberry fruit to the more classic blackcurrant backbone. Fine with exceptionally fine tannins this has a lovely rounded finish with more than a hint of the savoury minerality of the vintage.
Chateau Lynch-Bages,
Ready, but will keep,
This the pure essence of Pauillac: profound, ripe cassis aromas flow from the glass and herald a palate of cool, spicy, incredibly concentrated blackcurrants, and cream, vanilla and bitter dark chocolate all tightly woven together in a precise core. Lynch-Bages has again performed as well as many of the super-Second Growths.
Chateau Pichon Baron,
For laying down,
This wine suggests that Ch. Pichon Baron is really making the most of their great terroir. There is layered complexity on offer here and the weight of fruit is superbly controlled and focused.
Layered with terrific creamy notes, this wine lifts, lifts and lifts with each moment it sits on the palate. The generosity of fruit fills the finish and it combines beautifully with the spicy, toasty vanilla. There is some power here, but the structure is so sound, that it is felt but not forceful. The finish is prolonged and effortlessly enjoyable.
Blend: 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot
Layered with terrific creamy notes, this wine lifts, lifts and lifts with each moment it sits on the palate. The generosity of fruit fills the finish and it combines beautifully with the spicy, toasty vanilla. There is some power here, but the structure is so sound, that it is felt but not forceful. The finish is prolonged and effortlessly enjoyable.
Blend: 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot
Chateau Lynch-Bages,
For laying down,
When I dive into a glass of wine and try to analyse it, I really try to judge it as almost an oenological graphic equaliser, replacing treble, bass and tone with tannins, acidity, fruit and alcohol. For the mighty stadium-rocking 2010 Lynch Bages you need to turn your amp up to 11 to fully appreciate this staggering wine. It’s an all singing, all dancing, high octane but perfectly balanced beauty - a race car driving just on the edge!
Masculine and for the reasonably long haul, it’s a powerhouse of sweet, ripe cool Cabernet fruit with an intoxicating minerality and literally a five minute finish. Perfection in liquidity. Brilliant.
(79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot)
Simon Staples, Fine Wine Director
Masculine and for the reasonably long haul, it’s a powerhouse of sweet, ripe cool Cabernet fruit with an intoxicating minerality and literally a five minute finish. Perfection in liquidity. Brilliant.
(79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot)
Simon Staples, Fine Wine Director
Chateau Pontet-Canet,
For laying down,
A dark, inky purple, aromas of dark fruit, plum, cedar and spice give way to a wave of sweet, blue fruit on the palate. The texture is silky and soft. There is a little crunchy fruit on the mid-palate, but it has a way to go and is packed full of sensual dark fruit. Big and high-toned, the finish is long.
Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 35%, Cabernet Franc 4%, Petit Verdot 1%
Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 35%, Cabernet Franc 4%, Petit Verdot 1%
Chateau Lynch-Bages,
Ready, but will keep,
This exceptional château continues to make a mockery of its 5th Growth status, and in 2003 has re-emphasised just how good the Left Bank wines are. Huge wafts of muscular, minty, cassis-laden Cabernet Sauvignon on the nose introduce a powerful structured palate with savoury hints of liquorice. This is unquestionably Lynch-Bages, and a great one at that. Displaying even more elegance than other recent vintages, this Cabernet-dominated wine (83%) will gain even more weight in barrel and looks likely to prove absolutely stunning with a bit of patience. Drink 2012-2030.
Chateau Pichon Baron,
For laying down,
2010 is certainly a great year for the Pichons. Baron has unquestionably been the most consistent in recent years and the 2010 is just a whisker away from the brilliant 2009. The usual pure, ripe, dense fruit expressions are coupled with serious weight, power and structure providing an exceptionally long, intense finish. Whilst it will not compete for wine of the vintage it is impossible to fault. This is a wondrous wine which is good enough for any cellar.
Jake Dean - Fine Wine Team
Jake Dean - Fine Wine Team
Chateau Latour,
For laying down,
Up there with, and surpassing many Second Growths, and even a couple of Firsts, Les Forts is a truly fabulous wine. Silky, super fine tannins cover a dense, sweet core of vibrant, racy and ripe fruit. It is a fabulous wine this year, only a tiny way behind the stunning 2009 and 2010. Hopefully, restrained pricing on this might bring it down enough for us mere mortals to be able to try.
Simon Staples, Berrys’ Fine Wine Director
Simon Staples, Berrys’ Fine Wine Director
Chateau Mouton Rothschild,
Ready, but will keep,
Following the remarkable success of the 2006, Mouton's 2007 continues its dramatic, and very welcome, renaissance. As good as any of the First Growths, and as seductive and beguiling as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wine's majestic black fruit nose is followed by a powerful, beautifully poised palate with a generosity and concentration rarely seen in 2007. Rich plums, cassis and a panoply of spices are supported by ripe tannins, good structure and excellent minerality. With all the charm and personality of Baroness Philippine herself (which is a lot), this is a fantastic Mouton.
Chateau Mouton Rothschild,
For laying down,
The 2015 Ch. Mouton Rothschild is simply outstanding. It has a superb cool and racy palate brimming with Cabernet fruit. There is the ripeness, flair and gravitas you would expect from a First Growth and a very long, succulent finish.
The rich, intoxicating nose is extremely exciting, I just love the racy, pure cassis notes. The silky core of fruit is absolutely delicious. This is a really strong wine from a vintage which is justifiably rated highly. The crunch of fruit, a hallmark of the vintage, is present and utterly refreshing.
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc
The rich, intoxicating nose is extremely exciting, I just love the racy, pure cassis notes. The silky core of fruit is absolutely delicious. This is a really strong wine from a vintage which is justifiably rated highly. The crunch of fruit, a hallmark of the vintage, is present and utterly refreshing.
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc
Chateau Mouton Rothschild,
Drink now,
"The 1994 appears to be the finest Mouton-Rothschild made following the 1986 and before the 1995's conception. The wine exhibits a dense, saturated purple color, followed by a classic Mouton nose of sweet black fruits intermingled with smoke, pain grillee, spice, and cedar. Medium to full-bodied, with outstanding concentration, a layered feel, plenty of tannin, and rich, concentrated fruit, this wine is similar to the fine 1988. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2025. Although Mouton-Rothschild can be among the most inconsistent first-growths, when this estate gets everything right, the wine can be as compelling as any produced in Bordeaux". (Robert Parker)
Chateau Latour,
Ready, but will keep,
A brilliant offering, which should be drinkable much earlier than the blockbuster 2000, the 2001 Latour boasts an inky/ruby/purple color to the rim as well as a glorious bouquet of black currants, crushed stones, vanilla, and hints of truffles and oak. A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance primarily Merlot with a touch of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it reveals a sweetness on the palate that is atypical for such a young Latour. The beautiful integration of tannin, acidity, and wood is stunning. The wine flows across the palate with fabulous texture, purity, and presence. This luscious, full-bodied Latour was surprisingly open-knit on the three occasions I tasted it from bottle. However, do not mistake its aging ability as this 2001, despite its precociousness, will last 20-25 years. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2025.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 30/06/2004
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 30/06/2004
Chateau Latour,
Drink now,
An unusually high percentage of Merlot in the blend makes this a softer, more approachable Latour. It is nonetheless a powerful, intense wine that will need another 3 years before it is ready, but it will be worth the wait. You can already detect a fabulous purity of fruit and textbook cigar box and cassis; high tannins without astringency and a remarkable llength. If you can resist , it will keep until 2030.
Chateau Lafite Rothschild,
For laying down,
There are few, if any, more beautiful wines in Bordeaux than Ch. Lafite. The ethereal finesse, the lacy tannins, the intense, pure fruit and feminine delicacy; they are all there in this lovely wine. It is beautifully silky with coffee, spice and cedar notes, and a long seductive finish. Elegant, seductive and multi-dimensional it has the firm tannins typical of the vintage and a lovely harmony. With only 40% of the crop going into the Grand Vin, General Manager Charles Chevalier has done what he has to maintain the exceptional Lafite quality in 2006.
This wine is made by the team at Fifth Growth estate Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste. Its fabulous bouquet of blackcurrant, cedar and cigar box is classic Pauillac, as are its muscular, but opulent tannins and crisp freshness. The palate boasts the hallmark of the quality and appealing nature of the 2015 vintage, with rich, ripe black-fruit flavours, framed by a hint of toasty, fine-grained oak. It has the structure and energy to age gracefully but is hugely enjoyable now, ideally with rare roast lamb or beef.