2016 Bordeaux: Angélus, Pavie & Quintus

by Beth Thomas

CHÂTEAU ANGÉLUS is out this morning at £1788 per 6 IB. There are some highly impressive scores here, 96-98 from Neal Martin who expects this wine will reach the top of his banded score once in bottle, 17++ from Jancis Robinson, 99-100 from James Suckling, 97 from both Jane Anson and Tim Atkin, and 94-97+ from Antonio Galloni. We thought this was one of the best wines we have tasted from the estate, but our estimate of the price was clearly a little too conservative. Wishful thinking?.

CHÂTEAU PAVIE has also been released at £1794 per 6 IB. Such gamesmanship – the same price to us as Angelus (released at exactly the same time, but requesting a min. resell £1 a bottle higher. Bordeaux primeurs is such a laugh – ha ha ha!). Neal Martin scored this 98-100, Antonio Galloni 97-100, James Molesworth 97-100 and James Suckling 98-100. It scored lower than the Angélus with Jancis Robinson (17) and Tim Atkin (93), and we enjoyed the Angélus more too. Again, this wine has bounded outside of our price estimate. The further weakening of Sterling over the last few weeks certainly hasn’t helped.

Also from Saint Emilion this morning is CHÂTEAU QUINTUS at £560 per 6 IB and LE DRAGON DE QUINTUS at £280 per 12 IB. Since it was taken over by the team from Domaine Clarence Dillon (who make Haut Brion) in 2011, the winemaking at Quintus has been going from strength to strength and the wines here are a much more elegant style than either the Angélus or Pavie. Of the first wine, Antonio Galloni says ‘One of the real surprises of the vintage, the 2016 Quintus is superb’ and scores it 93-96+ points.

As ever, you can keep up to date with everything from #Bdx16 on our Recent Releases page.