Record primeur year for Angludet

Château d’Angludet in Margaux has said the 2014 en primeur was its “best ever” in the UK, with the entire allocation sold out.

The estate, owned by Maison Sichel, said the best campaign prior to this year had been in 2002, followed by 2005 and 2010.

Released at £156 a case, the last of the allocation went on 24 June with Maison Sichel saying that new customers but, more importantly, multiple orders from long-standing clients had been key to the success.

Towards the beginning of the campaign, Berry Bros & Rudd’s fine wine buying director, Max Lalondrelle, told the drinks business his team had sold around 600 cases in one morning.

Co-director of Maison Sichel, Charles Sichel, said: “Angludet, like many other non-classified or even mid-level Classed Growths, is not a wine for speculation, despite being a great investment. The quality continues to improve and the price has always been considered very reasonable for a wine that we are told consistently outperforms.

“There was a lot of doom and gloom by some sectors of the trade before the campaign and it was slow and timid at the start but I think things started to move when journalists and bloggers began to flag up the value-for-money 2014 represented in a lot of properties.”

At the end of the campaign, Georgina Crawley of Goedhuis told db that merchants needed to “get behind” châteaux they perceived as “getting it right” when it came to pricing and good value.

This appears to have been the case with Angludet.