CHÂTEAU VALANDRAUD
2016 Grand Cru Saint Emilion
The 2016 Valandraud is inky black in color. It has a very pure, precocious bouquet of intense black cherries mixed with cassis and blueberry, but after a couple of minutes’ aeration it develops more refinement and harmony. The palate is medium-bodied, offering supple tannins, a fine bead of acidity, gentle grip and great precision on the persistent finish. Excellent. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2022 - 2045 Rating: 96 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Aug 2020)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
Including 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, the Merlot-dominated 2016 Château Valandraud is a brilliant example of this cuvée that should match or exceed the incredible 2015 at maturity. Brought up all in new oak, its deep purple color is followed by a powerful bouquet of crème de cassis, graphite, smoked earth, and hints of earth. Possessing full-bodied richness, thrilling purity of fruit, ripe tannins, and just about perfect balance, it's another tour de force from the incredibly talented Jean-Luc Thunevin. It's slightly more elegant than the L'Interdit de Valandraud cuvée and will benefit from short-term cellaring and cruise for two decades or more. Drinking range: 2023 - 2043 Rating: 98+ Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Mar 2019)
This is a full display of fruit, with raspberry preserve, plum reduction and creamed boysenberry notes streaming through in lockstep, while light bramble and singed vanilla accents happily take a back seat throughout. An echo of chalky minerality at the very end adds refinement and length. Drinking range: 2022 - 2038 Rating: 96 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Jan 2019)
The 2016 Chateau Valandraud is a blend of 10% Cabernet Franc and 90% Merlot picked between 5 October to 15 October for the last Cabernet Franc, delivering 14.5% alcohol, less than in 2015. It has a very mineral-driven bouquet thanks to the limestone soils (please refer to the January 2017 issue of Wine Advocate where I examine the terroir of Valandraud). The palate is succulent on the entry with fine tannin, crisp and focused with superb definition, a little more finesse than the 2015 last year with a slightly confit-like finish that grips the mouth. It will require five or six years to really mellow and shave off those edges, but this will be a seductive 2016 from Jean-Luc Thunevin. Drinking range: 2022 - 2045 Rating: 95-97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)
This has a display of drop-dead gorgeous raspberry, boysenberry and blackberry confiture flavors unfurling from its core, backed by flamboyant anise and black tea notes. It’s rich, polished and seriously long. And then there’s a light twinge of chalky finesse at the very, very end to keep it grounded. Rating: 96-99 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2017)
Fantastic core of dark fruit with blackberries, blueberries, licorice and crushed stones. Full body, beautifully polished tannins and a long and energetic finish. Pinpoint. Superb. Rating: 97-98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2017)
An estate that is fascinating to taste in this vintage. Cassis, blueberry and liquorice flavours have huge persistency, with a dense but creamy texture across the palate. For the past two years they have carried out much less green harvesting and the yield in 2016 is at 50hl/ha, the highest ever. 'Us, the big proponents of low yields', Jean Luc Thunevin tells me with a smile. He knows, as I do, that this is a big success, an extremely lovely wine that still impresses plenty. No surprise that this counts as my favourite Valandraud to date. 92 IPT. 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in 100% new oak. More than 96% of the production in this grand vin. Drinking range: 2027 - 2050 Rating: 95 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2017)
The 2016 Valandraud is fabulous. Rich, exotic and plush on the palate, it exudes raciness in all of its dimensions. Sweet toasted oak, crème de cassis, raspberry jam, spice and floral notes all run through the 2016. Even with all of its richness, it remains light on its feet for such a big wine, especially as it opens up in the glass. There is plenty of depth and concentration, that is for sure, but the 2016 also retains freshness as well as energy, with a good deal of tannin underpinning the fruit. Quite simply, this is a stellar Valandraud. Rating: 94-97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)
With its saturated colour, scented oak and bold, fig, bramble and blackberry fruit, this is a very serious, densely layered Valandraud with plenty of extraction and structure, but good freshness and vivacity too. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 93 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2017)
Château Valandraud
Among the garagiste wineries of the 1990’s, none was more garagiste than Château Valandraud. When Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle bought a couple of tiny plots of wines in 1989, the only place they had to make their wine was in a garage in the back streets of St Emilion village. The better of the two plots was 0.6ha just outside the village squashed between Pavie-Macquin and Le Clotte in a little valley called the Vallon de Fongaban – tacking the “Val” from Vallon on to Murielle’s maiden name – Andraud – they came up with the name Valandraud. Necessity as much as thirst for quality meant that practically everything was done meticulously by hand. The first release was in 1991. The 1992 was released at First Growth kinds of prices, which turned heads and set Château Valandraud on the path to cult status. Gradually more vineyard has been purchased including the previously obscure Château Bel-Air-Ouÿ in Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse, way out east near the border with the Côtes de Castillon, meaning Château Valandraud now has a château. With the purchase of Bel-Air-Ouÿ, it is interesting to note that the majority of this undoubtedly great estate’s vineyards lie far outside the established area of the St Emilion plateau. Valandraud’s meteoric rise was crowned by its elevation from nowhere to Premier Grand Cru Classé (B) status in the 2012 St Emilion classification, and few would bet against the B being turned into an A if St Emilion can bear the turmoil of a further classification in the future. The vineyards are around 70% Merlot, with anything from 65% to 100% going into the main cuvée. Most of the rest of the vineyards are Cabernet Franc, but there are smaller plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Carmenère. The wine is aged in 100% new oak. There are, also, around 2ha of vineyard dedicated to white wine production. Aside from Château Valandraud, there is Virginie de Valandraud which is often described as the second wine of the estate but Thunevin insist it is more of an alternative cuvée with Le 3 de Valandraud being the actual second wine.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.