Stop Press… Haut Brion one of the biggest EP2015 Releases so far

Haut Brion is one of our KEY buys for the 2015 en primeurs, and has been eagerly awaited by all.  It’s been released today at a keen price of £4245/case and has among the best reviews of the whole 2015 vintage.

Haut Brion 2015 has received very good reviews and scores, with Antonio Galloni saying that “The 2015 Haut-Brion is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage… There is little doubt this a magical wine with huge potential for the future.”While James Suckling says that it is a “structured and powerful Haut-Brion with so much finesse and beauty.”

Highest praise however comes from Neal Martin, Robert Parker’s anointed successor, who has described it in particularly glowing terms “The palate has an indescribably stunning balance, there is a paradoxical sense of intensity married to weightlessness”. But of particular interest to us is the wines he compares it to, not the 2010, 2009 2005 as shown above, but as follows “Having had the pleasure of many great wines from this estate in the past – 1945, 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1989 – the 2015 belongs among that pantheon.” 

The wines mentioned here alongside the 2015 are worth up to five times the asking price of the 2015… the 1961 retails at almost £25,000 per case while the 1989 cannot be bought for less than £14,000.

Even if we discount the comparison with hallowed vintages of Haut Brion such as the 1945, 1961 and 1989 Haut Brion still presents exceptional value against its nearer peers, being significantly more affordable than any 100 point wine from the last 20 years, and less expensive even than the 98 point 1990 and the 99 point 2000 vintages, whose score it can reasonably be expected to eclipse given the praise it has received.

It is also worth noting that 98-100 is Neil Martin’s top score for 2015, shared with Margaux and a few other special wines.  Neal Martin is notably more parsimonious in his scoring than Parker so numbers like these are to be considered particularly high praise from him

2015 as a vintage is right up there with 2005/9/10, we can see this if we look at Neal Martin’s scores (bear in mind that the score for 2015 are the midpoint of his range scores), it seems reasonable to expect a smattering of 100 point scores.  Haut Brion presents great value as it is, but should it get the 100 points we can expect a significant score jump.

Those who keep a close eye on the market may also have noticed that Haut Brion has been one of the best performing wines of the last 18 months alongside Mouton Rothschild, which has also just released, as I write, its 2015 – more to follow.  The reasonable price for Haut Brion 2015 should only help this trend, with strong demand for Haut Brion making it a sell out in Bordeaux almost as quickly as Margaux.

As a final point En Primeur also means easy availability of non-standard formats, for investors comfortable with a longer term hold and / or ordering multiple cases it is well worth considering ordering some magnums or larger formats, as these tend to perform better over the long run (albeit with slightly lower liquidity) there is a small surcharge for some formats larger than magnums, but this will depend on what exactly you are looking to order.

For more information and for en primeur allocations call us NOW on 0203 384 2262 or email enquiries@vin-x.com