Bordeaux 2017: Mouton (97-99 WA), Las Cases 'truly magical'...

Mouton Rothschild.jpg

12th June 2018. 

Demand for the hugely popular First Growth Mouton Rothschild continues to escalate.  The 2017 continues an impressive run of recent vintages and the 97-99 point score from the Wine Advocate places it amongst the very best of them.  Volumes are 15% down and it is released 20% below the price of the 2016.  97-99 Wine Advocate "Wow. This vintage is going to be very long-lived in the cellar!""
 
We can also offer the "gorgeous" dry white from Mouton, Aile d'Argent at £672 per 12.  The second wine, Petit Mouton, has sold out to pre-orders. 
 
Leoville Las Cases is once again touching First Growth quality in 2017 and really stood out in the tastings this year with its exceptionally refined fruit and texture.  93-96 Antonio Galloni  "silky, nuanced and exceptionally polished. In 2017, Las Cases is truly magical".  97 Decanter "This is an exceptional wine". 
  
The busy morning for top names continues with Pontet Canet now out at £1013 per 12. 96-98 WA "wonderful freshness and spectaular energy".  Finally we have Haut Bailly, an "understated beauty", released at £888 per 12 (93-96 AG).
 
 
Pauillac
 
£4320 per 12 btl  /  £2160 per 6
97-99 Wine Advocate "wonderfully delicate yet intense in the mouth (gaining some richness in the mid-palate on my second taste two and a half weeks later), it has super fine-grained, smooth tannins and incredible freshness, finishing very long with tons of tightly wound layers. Wow. This vintage is going to be very long-lived in the cellar!"
97-98 James Suckling  "This is a very shy and tight Mouton with blackberries, blackcurrants and hints of terracotta. Full body and very integrated tannins that are extremely polished and beautiful. Spicy and white-pepper finish. Sexy and exciting. So long and refined."

£672 per 12 btl  /  £336 per 6 
97 Decanter  "This is a gorgeous wine, with wonderfully round stone fruit flavours, reminiscent of apricot and generous white peach. It shows huge intensity and concentration, with a wet stone minerality on the finish - for me, that is always a texture not a flavour, and extremely welcome in a young white wine. They lost two of the five plots to frost, so production is 35-40% down on normal."
 
£1013 per 12 btl  /  £506.50 per 6
96-98 Wine Advocate "opens with vibrant wild blueberries, black raspberries and crushed plums with notions of cinnamon stick, violets, unsmoked cigars and pencil lead plus wafts of roses, lavender and tilled black soil. Medium-bodied with very fine, incredibly plush tannins, it is deliciously savory in the mouth, with wonderful freshness and spectacular energy delivering many layers, resulting in a very long, mineral-laced finish."
94-96 Jeb Dunnuck  "Described as a mix of his 2015 and 2016 by owner Alfred Tesseron, the 2017 Pontet-Canet is another tour de force from this estate that readers will be thrilled to have in the cellar... Gorgeous blueberries, crème de cassis, incense, and spring flower characteristics all soar from the glass of this inky-colored, medium to full-bodied, deep, beautifully concentrated 2017."
 

St Julien
 
£1776 per 12 btl  /  £888 per 6 
96-98 Wine Advocate "deep garnet-purple in color and simply sings of crushed blackcurrants, wild blueberries and plum preserves with notions of wood smoke, cigar boxes, crushed rocks and beef drippings. Medium-bodied with wonderful intensity and vivacity, it gives a firm, fine-grained frame and a densely packed mid-palate, finishing long and earthy. This should age incredibly!"
97 Decanter  "One of the very few wines in this vintage that truly stains the glass with its wonderfully vibrant anthocyanins. This is an exceptional wine - Léoville just knows how to knock it out of the park again and again... There's huge persistency through the palate, very similar to last year. It has presence and a grip that doesn't want to let go, and you don't want it to either. It continues to reveal itself over the course of the glass, showing slate, cassis, blackberry and charcoal. It's not as powerfully knitted as the 2016, but watch out for those tannins. I expect this will be a wine that, like the 1996 and 2016, will close down and evolve extremely slowly. Stunning aromatics."
 

Graves
 
£888 per 12 btl  /  £444 per 6
94-96 Wine Advocate "a wonderfully spicy nose of cinnamon stick, cloves, anise and fenugreek with core of roses, warm blueberries, black forest cake and black raspberries plus hints of underbrush and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied with firm, ripe, grainy tannins, it has oodles of freshness and great finesse, continuing bright and energetic on the long, minerally finish."
93-96 Antonio Galloni  "The 2017 Haut-Bailly is an understated beauty... All the classic Haut-Bailly signatures come through in a mid-weight, super-finessed wine that hits all the right notes. Dark red and blue stone fruits, graphite, smoke, licorice and incense are all laced into the super-expressive finish. The 2017 emerges from the estate's central, most historic parcels, as those vineyards were not affected by the April frost that took with it 30% of the production."


Please enquire, order online or contact us at sales@albanyvintners.com.
 
En Primeur wines, offered lying In Bond in the UK Summer 2020. 
Wines may be ordered in special sizes for a small supplement (6x150cl Magnums, 1x300cl double magnum, 3x300cl double magnums, 1x600cl imperial) . Please enquire for details.
Sweet wines may be ordered in half-bottles (case of 12x37.5 or case of 24x37.5) at no extra cost.