Bordeaux 2016: Suduiraut and Batailley

The trickle of en primeur releases continued towards the end of this week with the release of Suduiraut and Batailley.

Sauternes estate Suduiraut came out yesterday (4 May) at the same price as its 2015, €45.60 a bottle ex-négociant, but the London price of £545 a dozen was 13.5% higher than it was last year due to the exchange rate.

This makes the 2016 vintage the most expensive wine from the property on the market and while the wine has been well-scored and commented upon by various critics, there are several back vintages with the same or better scores that are significantly cheaper.

Unfortunately, the struggles of Sauternes and the fact that it tends not to hold its value very well in the market often makes for lopsided charts which, on paper, show Sauternes as being ‘bad’ value for money. Hopefully followers of Suduiraut/Sauternes know enough to judge for themselves what constitutes a good buy.

Out this morning (5 May), was one of the ‘proper lunchtime claret’ brigade: Batailley (pictured).

Like Armailhac earlier in the week, the Pauillac estate raised its release price relative to 2015 (though by half as much as the Mouton-owned label), up 6.2% to €34 p/b from €32 in ’15.

Often called a château whose quality has been long overlooked, Batailley is the sort of estate one can be sure produced an excellent wine in a vintage like 2016 and at £400 a case will likely be high on merchants’ radars and among the best-sellers come the end of the campaign.