Bordeaux 2016: the merchants’ view
Merchants are expecting strong demand for 2016 Bordeaux, with early reactions supporting the view that the vintage has produced a raft of top-quality wines, though there is variability too
BoRDEAux 2016 is a vintage unlike any other, with some outstanding wines on the Left Bank in particular, and ranks ahead of 2005 for quality – but behind both 2010 and 2009.
Those are some of the views expressed by merchants in Liv-ex’s annual post-en primeur member survey, which as ever offers a mixture of surprises and relatively predictable results.
Wine of the vintage, by some margin, was Lafite Rothschild, with nearly 20% of respondents placing it top. Runners-up were Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Margaux, followed by Ausone, Vieux Château Certan and Cheval Blanc representing the Right Bank.
The top 10 value list (wines with an expected release price of less than £500/case) was topped by Grand-Puy-Lacoste for the seventh successive year. other highly ranked value picks included Angludet, Calon-ségur, Clerc-Milon and Branaire-Ducru.
if the value picks were fragmented (respondents named 96 different wines), the most disappointing wines of 2016 were even more so (126 wines), making firm conclusions elusive and suggesting that, for all its overall quality, 2016 is an inconsistent vintage.
Where does 2016 sit in the pantheon of Bordeaux vintages? Very good, but not superlative would probably be the best description, despite the claims of several châteaux to have made their best ever wines.
Comparing to other vintages, Liv-ex members ranked 2016 third behind 2010 and 2009, but ahead of 2005 (perhaps surprisingly) and 2015. That said, views were polarised: while 41.6% placed 2016 first or second, 40% put it in fourth or fifth place, reinforcing the notion of inconsistency and the need for caution when buying.
summing up, the critic mean score for 2016 was 95.9, using
the 100-point scale. That’s significantly higher, analysing the results of the past decade of Liv-ex surveys, than nearly every year back to 2007; and ahead of 2015 (94.6) but just behind 2009 and 2010 (both 96).
Almost half of those surveyed expect higher demand for 2016 than there was for 2015, with the usual caveat about ‘sensible’ pricing and concerns that the French presidential elections, plus the biennial Vinexpo trade show in Bordeaux, could elongate the campaign, diluting purchaser enthusiasm.
The releases also come at an interesting time for the fine wine market, with the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index falling 0.5% in April – the first monthly decline in 17 months.
Meanwhile, trends in early May suggest that en primeur is already impacting the market, with Figeac 2013 the most traded wine by value and volume in the first week of the month – amid anticipation about the property’s 2016 release, which has already attracted high scores.
For full coverage of Bordeaux’s 2016 en primeur campaign, see Decanter.com/bordeaux-2016