‘Incredible’ Château Lafleur release provides ‘excellent value’

The trickle of releases from the latest en primeur campaign has continued over the last week, with the release of an “excellent value” Château Lafleur of “potential perfection”, as well as a more divisive Château Grand-Puy Ducasse.

The Château Lafleur 2022, which was released on Friday (19 May), was released at €610 per bottle ex-négociant, a rise of 8.9% on the 2021 release (€560), according to Liv-ex, with a recommended retail price of £7,440 per case of 12, an increase of 14.3% on the 2021’s opening price of £6,508 a case.

However, Liv-ex noted that this offered “excellent value for those lucky enough to secure an allocation” – and the chateau itself stated an aim “to be transparent and give the market confidence with a stable pricing model”.

The wine has seen some high critic scores, with db’s Bordeaux correspondent awarding it a barrel range of 98-100 points, calling it a wine of “potential perfection”, “texturally incredible, almost gravity-defying, and with tannins of a remarkable finesse”.

Jane Anson was similarly impressed, while Neal Martin gave the slightly lower score of 97-99 points, none-the-less calling it an “intellectual and delicious” wine that was “among the best that Baptiste and Julie Guinaudeau have conjured in recent years – and that’s a very impressive canon of work”.  William Kelley of Wine Advocate agreed, praising it as “one of the most characterful as well as most consistent wines produced in contemporary Bordeaux”.

However Lisa Perrotti-Brown of Wine Independent who offered a lower score of 96-98+, noted that the  2022 vintage “will need a lot of time” to reach its full potential, an assessment shared by Colin Hay.

Today also saw the release of Château Grand-Puy Ducasse 2022, which received more mixed reviews. It was release at £378 per case of 12, a rise of around a third on last year, or €29.50 per bottle ex-négociant – an increase of 22.9% on the 2021 release, according to Liv-ex.

This week has also seen the release of Château Ormes de Pez 2022 at €21 per bottle and Château Grand-Puy Ducasse 2022 at €29.50 per bottle…