2016 Bordeaux – Château Les Ormes De Pez and Alter Ego du Château Palmer

by Beth Thomas

Out this morning from Saint Estèphe is CHÂTEAU LES ORMES DE PEZ at £250 per case of 12 IB. We really enjoyed this wine on the two occasions we tasted it, and the critics seem to have shared our enthusiasm.

Neal Martin scores it 92-94 and says ‘Harmonious right to the end, this is an excellent Les Ormes de Pez that seems to revel in the 2016 vintage’. In Decanter, Jane Anson says ‘this is going to be hard to beat’ for consumers looking for good drinking Bordeaux and gives it a very respectable 93 points. It received 16.5 from Jancis Robinson, 90-93 from James Molesworth, 93-94 from James Suckling and 92 from Tim Atkin. At £250 per 12 this falls at the right end of where we expected the release price to be and should offer very satisfying medium term (maybe even longer term) drinking.

Also out is ALTER EGO du Château Palmer at £280 per case of 6 IB. Now this was a really outstanding wine but tragically the Château lost around 20% of the crop to mildew so volumes were down and prices, unsurprisingly, are up. In fact, this is the most expensive Alter Ego since 2005 – good job it’s a cracker.

CHÂTEAU MARQUIS D’ALESME was released yesterday afternoon at £180 per 6 IB. It is run by the same team as Labégorce and has some lovely critics scores – 17 from Jancis Robinson, 91-94 from James Molesworth and 92-94 from Neal Martin. We were less excited about it, finding it had more force than class, but given time it may develop into something more approachable.