Wine merchants are optimistic that the wines being sold en primeur are realistically priced, for a change. The first wines of the most-anticipated Bordeaux vintage for many years have been released at prices slightly higher than last year – and there's an air of suppressed excitement among UK merchants. Bordeaux 2015 is widely touted as a "very good to great" vintage. It is too patchy for critics to rate it as the vintage of the century, but for certain communes – like Margaux – it was certainly a great year. Saint-Émilion and Pomerol are also considered to have excelled. The first releases include Château Coutet in Sauternes, Saint-Émilion's La Couspaude, Pomerol's Gazin, the two Cru Bourgeois properties Château Capbern (Saint-Estèphe) and Chasse-Spleen (Moulis), and a handful of wines from the J-P Moueix stable in Libourne (everything except the top Pomerol crus Hosanna, La Fleur-Petrus and Trotanoy, and the Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé Bélair-Monange). Most price rises are between 8 per cent and 15 per cent on 2104, a range which Edouard Moueix of J-P Moueix told Wine‑Searcher he considers "sensible and normal" for the vintage. Château d'Angludet, a Margaux cru bourgeois of some renown, is now on the market at £215 ($314) a case, some 28 per cent above last year, which some merchants suggest is "pushing it a bit". Pomerol's Château Gazin comes out at €45.60 ($51.75) per bottle ex-negociant, a 15.2 per cent increase on the 2014 release. To the consumer this works out at £485 ($709) a case in bond. At this price, Will Hargrove at Corney & Barrow told Wine‑Searcher he can recommend the wine "without hesitation", while Matthew Hemming MW at Averys in Bristol suggested the price was high, "though it's a strong wine in a powerful vintage and it's selling out in France". "Pomerol is the sweet spot in this vintage," Hargrove has told his clients, although the trading platform Liv-ex warns: "Buyers seeking value might look towards 2012. Robert Parker considered the 2012 vintage to be 'excellent' for Pomerol overall and awarded 95 points to Gazin 2012. It is available at a 13.4 percent discount to the 2015." Chadwick Delaney, managing director of Justerini & Brooks, says the prices so far make him "quietly hope" the campaign this year will be an exciting one. "The big wine is not trying to squeeze another 10 euros out, but to bring people back to Bordeaux. There is genuine interest in this vintage, for the first time in five years, and they should take advantage of that." Delaney warned that these early releases from petit chateaux should not be taken as an indication of what is to come. The key moment, he said, will be the first price release from a first growth. "It's essential that the case price we offer to the public begins with a three," he said – indicating that he would be confident of selling the first growths as near as possible to £3000 ($4400) a case. This would contrast well with the current prices of the three great 21st Century vintages that 2015 is being compared with – 2005, 2009 and 2010. With the exception of Latour, the first growths in these vintages are on the UK market for between £5200 and £5800 ($7600-8500) a case. Hargrove agrees. "These are this vintage's peers, and 2015 should not be more expensive [than them], as they are finished and proven wines." Further price releases are expected this week, although it is likely the iconic properties will not release until much nearer the Vinexpo trade fair in Hong Kong at the end of this month. Others may wait until the current cold weather that is gripping western Europe improves: Veronique Sanders of Haut-Bailly in the Graves has indicated that she prefers not to release one vintage – 2015 – until all danger of frost has passed on the subsequent vintage – 2016.
The first wines from the French region of Bordeaux have received favourable reviews from UK wine merchants. The Bordeux 2015 is a keenly-anticipated vintage and considered to be a very good wine from this locale, with critics rating it as "very good" or even "great". The vintage is being sold at prices higher than last year due to the fact it is 'proven' in terms of quality that suggests it could be voted one of the best wines this century. However, wine merchants remain cautiously optimistic about this prediction, claiming that it is too early to say until after the first growths have been considered.They hope that these early signs of promise may cause a resurgence of interest in Bordeaux amongst the public who have switched to sparkling wines.