2016 Bordeaux – Château Duhart Milon ‘Real elegance and some majesty’

by Beth Thomas

Released this afternoon is CHÂTEAU DUHART MILON ROTHSCHILD PRIMEUR FAVOURITES at £310 per 6 IB. This is one of our recommended wines, we all found it a joy to taste and it is a great example of the brilliant wines from Pauillac in 2016. Neal Martin recommends it too, he says that it is ‘a step up from the 2015’ and scores it 92-94. Both Neal Martin and Jane Anson describe this as a ‘classic’ Duhart Milon, this is true, but it also has all of the freshness and purity that makes the 2016 vintage in general stand out.

CHÂTEAU MONTROSE 2ème Cru Classé PRIMEUR FAVOURITES is also out. This is one of the great wines of Saint Estèphe, which we thought superior to Cos. Neal Martin describes this wine as ‘a disarmingly and hauntingly beautiful 2016’. Unfortunately the UK bought very little last year and this is going to be very hard to find. Order anyway and we will do our best to get hold of it.

In the meantime, do please consider the second wine from this property, DAME DE MONTROSE Saint Estèphe PRIMEUR FAVOURITES, released at 156 per 6 IB. This really reminded us of the phenomenal 2010 wine from this property, and we think at a fair price too.

Also out today are 2016 CHÂTEAU CHASSE SPLEEN at £258 per 12 IB2016 CHÂTEAU DU TERTRE at £174 per 6 IB and 2016 CHÂTEAU KIRWAN at £189 per 6 IB. Chasse Spleen has very respectable scores across the board from the critics, and Neal Martin says that it is ‘the best I have ever tasted from the estate’ – whilst we didn’t taste it quite as well during Primeurs Week, this is certainly a wine to look at. Of the Du Tertre, Galloni says ‘this is a terrific 2016’ and Neal Martin scores it 90-92 points. The Kirwan falls only just within our price estimate at £189 per 6, and we were not blown away by it. Neal Martin suggests that it might be a late bloomer though, so given a bit more time it may become more exciting.  It has to be said that with these releases we are reminded of the value offered by the fantastic CHÂTEAU LABÉGORCE , and think that this remains a very sensible buy indeed, and amazingly we still have some available.

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

Best wishes,