Malescasse bites the bullet on 2013 vintage

Château Malescasse, a cru bourgeois in Haut Médoc, will not make a 2013 vintage at all, selling off its wine as AOC Haut Médoc at a cut price rate – and the first release of the year has also happened.

The 110-hectare property produces 130,000 bottles a year on average but will make neither a first wine or even its second wine.

According to the Independent, it will instead sell it all as Haut Médoc for around €2 or €3 a bottle rather than the usual €10.

It will cost the château some €800,000.

Winemaking consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt explained to Le Figaro: “I’m not saying that the wine is bad.

“But it does not measure up to our ambitions. Rather than squeeze something out of a wine we don’t like, we prefer to cut off our own arm and move on.”

The move will be food-for-thought for other château going into this year’s primeurs.

Although some have claimed the vintage will prove a “joyous triumph over adversity”, Derenencourt continued: “All of Bordeaux is not bad. But even the top chateaux, which always make good wines, will have no great stars this year.”

There have already been rumblings that some château, much more prestigious than Malecasse, will opt out of the campaign or drastically reduce their production at the very least.

Robert Parker has postponed his tasting of the vintage until June rather than March so that the wines have more time to reveal whatever qualities they may or may not have.

Meanwhile, a long way ahead of schedule, Liv-ex has reported that Le G de Guiraud is the first release of the Bordeaux 2013 crop at €7.30 ex-négociant.

“G” is the dry white from Sauternes property Guiraud. Of all the communes in Bordeaux, Sauternes and Barsac are apparently looking at a more successful vintage.

This year’s campaign may be very interesting indeed for reasons all of its own.