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First release in Bordeaux en primeur campaign hits the market

29 April 2024 By Arabella Mileham

Château Batailley has become the first estate out of the gate for the 2023 en primeur – releasing the 2023 vintage at a price 11.9% lower than its 2022 release price.

Vineyards in Medoc region near Bordeaux in France with hills grapes and trees in autumn season

The 2023 vintage has been released at €26 per bottle ex-négociant – compared to €29.50 last year, and is being offered by the international trade for £324 per case of 12, which marks a 12.9% decrease on the 2022’s opening price of £372 a case.

The decrease put it roughly on a par with the release of the 91-93+point scoring 2021 (as judged by Colin Hay) and the 93-95 points 2020 release, which were in fact a fraction higher at €26.50, and sold by the international trade for £330 per case of twelve.

Is this a sign of things to come?

Obviously this first release is well below the 30-35% that has been called for by many in the trade, however the 2022 release of Château Batailley was noted by Liv-ex as out as “one of the best value wines on the market” at the time, and as db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay points out, this is “not a wine we need a 30% reduction on for it to work”.

It also appears to be the lowest release price in euros since 2014 – however, the secondary market has some vintages equivalent in quality at around the same price point – both the 2020 and the 2021 are currently available at a discount to today’s release, Liv-ex points out and the 94-point scoring 2019 vintage is trading for only a fraction more.

Although the scores are not yet in for this wine more widely, Hay awarded it a 93-95, calling it “nicely balanced”, “comfortingly soft” with “a lovely clean cassis signature and good sapidity”. It is, he notes “floral for Pauillac”, but with a “specific salinity to its minerality and a slight smoky note” . There is also a little less oak than there used to be but “considerable intensity to the red and darker berry fruits that define the core of this wine on the palate”.

So despite the first release, it still remains to be seen if the “symbolically significant early releases” from estates such as Léoville Las Cases, Pontet Canet and Lafite Rothschild later this week will be the things that point of what is to come.

“If I read the signals correctly, I anticipate release price reductions (relative to 2022) of between 30 and 35% in each case (in euros),” Hay notes in his latest analysis, published today.

Colin Hay’s Tasting notes

Batailley (Pauillac; 79% Cabernet Sauvignon; 19% Merlot; 2% Petit Verdot; a final yield of around 49 hl/ha and late picked; tasted at the UGC press tasting at the Cité du Vin and then at Chateau Batailley). I think I’d pick this blind (easily said, I know) and I like that. Again, it’s floral for Pauillac (and that makes it a little more difficult to pick), but it has a specific salinity to its minerality and a slight smoky note that I recognise. Damsons and blueberries, a little bramble and black berry too. Glossy. Comfortingly soft, a little less oak than there used to be and with considerable intensity to the red and darker berry fruits that define the core of this wine on the palate (here, as that suggests, the fruit profile is a little lighter in hue). A lovely clean cassis signature and good sapidity. Nicely balanced. 93-95.

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