En Primeur 2014 update
01.05.2015
The releases are coming thick and fast. Palmer and its little brother Alter Ego, Lynch Bages, La Lagune and Angelus have all hit the market with wildly varying responses, which appears to be developing into a pattern. Inconsistency of pricing patterns seems to be the hallmark of this release.
After the generally encouraging response to Mouton Rothschild hopes were high that the other big names would be sympathetic to the commercial realities merchants are facing. It seems that Palmer is singing form a different hymn sheet. Palmer will hit the shelves (or, rather, won’t) at a hefty £1,500 per dozen. This makes it more expensive than at least four recent bottled vintages, and provides little or no incentive to consider it. The price needed to be far closer to £1000 than £1500 for interest to be piqued.
Lynch Bages is at the other end of the scale. Although at £575 a dozen it is more expensive than last year’s release, it represents a 30% or so discount on recent vintages with similar scores and would on the face of it seem a very sensible wine to consider. We would need to see some of its peers release their prices first – Pontet Canet, Leoville Barton, and the Pichons, for example – but we are very optimistic that this great producer is going to be on our shortlist.
Angelus probably sits in the middle. It seems to be walking the tightrope between a fair appraisal of the quality of the wine and an attractive market price. Is it a dead cert to add to a portfolio? Well, no. Worth considering? We will see…
As it’s a bank holiday in France today and one for us on Monday we will see a pause that will resume early next week.