Bordeaux 2011 – Cantemerle, Le Boscq, Perse part 1, Rieussec and Coutet

by Charles Lea

Rieussec has been offered and is causing a few ruffles in the market. I did not think it was one of the great Rieussecs, but others have rated it very highly and James Suckling has questioned whether it wil be better than Yquem. The ruffles are to do with price rather than the wine, because Rieussec tends to be linked to Carruades, and has been discounted by some traders (Bordeaux Négociants and UK-based brokers) in the scramble to secure more Carruades. Suffice to say that if you do want to buy Rieussec, and I certainly would not put you off, please do give me a call and we will see where the market is, because this wine can offer great value. Because of the rather piecemeal way we may have to fulfil orders our price promise that all bottle and case sizes of Sauternes will be the same will not apply to Rieussec. The other big Sauternes release of the day is Coutet, but I’d probably point you at Rieussec or Suduiraut ahead of this.

Also on the market today is Cantemerle, but I’d still rather have Clos Manou or Les Ormes de Pez for less. Or Le Boscq, another good St Estèphe at a sensible price. As a real cheapy Sénéjac would repay those with big enough cellars to store it in on arrival. On the other side of the river we have the first releases from the Perse stable, Clos des Lunelles, Lusseau and Monbousquet. This last is a good effort considering that it is on sand and gravel, so really suffered from the drought, and the rain came at the worst possible moment, so they must have worked like the devil.

All in all its a day to sit on your hands and wait… for the offer of Super-Italians coming your way soon from Patrick! Jean-Guillaume Prats himself told Patrick, on his recent visit to Cos d’Estournel, that in the Asian market he did not fear the competition of Burgundy, since there is such limited supply, but that the next big thing would be top Italians.