Bordeaux 2015: the Brion’s are coming!

Haut-Brion, Clarence Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion have marched into view this morning but will it be a glorious charge or an ignominious rout?

The wines of the Clarence Dillon brigade advancing into the withering fire of critical opinion

The top wines of the Domaine Clarence Dillon stable have certainly stepped off boldly with the asking prices for their 2015 wines, fifes and drums playing, colours fluttering in the morning breeze.

First growth Haut-Brion has gone one better than fellow first Margaux with an opening level of €385 per bottle, ex-négociant, 60.4% above the price of its 2014 and one €1 more expensive than Margaux was.

Second wine ‘Clarence’ is up 57.4% to €85 p/b while La Mission Haut-Brion has come out with the biggest increase of the campaign so far, a 106% increase from €145 p/b in 2014 to €300 p/b for the 2015.

Pessac-Léognan and Margaux were widely considered the two best appellations on the Left Bank in 2015.

Haut-Brion was the only other first growth (alongside Château Margaux) with a possible 100-point score from Neal Martin and it received 97-98 from James Suckling, 98 from Jean-Marc Quarin, 18-19 from Chris Kissack, 18.5 from Jancis Robinson MW and 96 from Tim Atkin MW. It was voted second in the Liv-ex list of ‘wines of the vintage’ and there will no doubt be some debate over whether it or Margaux deserves the accolade more.

The estate and indeed the region has been gaining greater recognition of late as its quality continues to improve and Haut-Brion has gone from almost the proverbial ‘fifth wheel’ among the first growths to one of the most sought-after labels. Farr Vintners has already said its allocation of 2015 has sold out.

That said, pipping the ‘wine of the vintage’ by €1 feels like a cheap shot and typical of the one-upmanship many feel dominates Bordeaux pricing – at the expense of a more sensitive, market-friendly approach.

Furthermore, as both firsts have the same score from Martin (to take one critic) and Margaux has the emotional story of it being both Paul Pontallier’s last at the estate as well as the 200^th anniversary vintage – what does Haut-Brion seek to gain?

La Mission, likewise, received top marks from critics: 97-99 from Martin, 100 from Suckling, 18.5 from Robinson, 95 from Atkin and 17-18 from Kissack.

Yet it is also the most expensive wine in the Liv-ex Left Bank 200 index and high release prices in recent years (it is often priced just below first growth levels) means it has struggled to maintain its value in the secondary market.

It is also twice as expensive as the 2014 which is itself a 95-97-point wine (as scored by Martin) and the 97-point 2012.

A second tranche of Pontet-Canet was also released yesterday afternoon at €85 p/b, 17% more expensive than the initial bottle prices for the first tranche that came out in late May.