Bordeaux 2016: Branaire-Ducru goes up

Saint-Julien fourth growth Branaire-Ducru released this morning with a 6.5% increase on its 2015 wine – but it remains below £500 a case.

The wine is being offered by négociants at €39.60 a bottle, 6.5% up on the release price of the 2015 and the merchant price of £465 a case is 17.7% above the price a case of the 2015 was offered for (£395).

On the other hand, it is below £500 a case and thus justifies its fifth place inclusion on the ‘best value’ list compiled by Liv-ex members and, much like d’Armailhac, it seems this is one of the best wines from the estate since 2005.

With a 92-94 point spread from Neal Martin at The Wine Advocate, the wine has consistently mid to high-90s scores from most of the major critics and on score alone is clearly the best vintage since the 2010.

Wines from its back catalogue with a similar or higher score (the 2005, 2009 and 2010) are all more expensive and while there are numerous wines that don’t cost as much, nor do they have the scores to match this latest effort.