CHÂTEAU KIRWAN
2018 3ème Cru Classé Margaux
Lots of blackberry fruit again here. It has fine gloss and good purity. There is more energy here than some but it still never quite sets the palate alight . A decent Margaux that will reward some time in the cellar to allow the chalky tannins on the finish to integrate. Drinking range: 2028 - 2040L&S (Apr 2019)
* 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.
Blueberry, blackberry, black tea, dark chocolate and walnut on the nose. It’s full-bodied with firm, well integrated tannins. Silky and richly flavored. Always shows finesse. Lots of character at the finish, from wet earth and mushroom to currant and berry. Try from 2024. Rating: 94 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2021)
Inky core with purple rim. Sweet, dark and scented black fruit. Notably aromatic and a touch floral. Rich and savoury on the palate, all the impact is in the middle of the palate but the tannins are nicely smooth on the finish. A little bit showy in a vintage where the wines are generally rather closed at the moment but the fruit is to the fore, which is unusual and welcome in this vintage. Drinking range: 2025 - 2033 Rating: 16.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)
The 2018 Kirwan is deep garnet-purple in color and gives intense, lifted scents of kirsch, black raspberries and warm cassis with nuances of rose hip tea, tar, fragrant earth and wild sage. The full-bodied palate delivers a great intensity of vibrant fruit with loads of earthy nuances and a firm, fine-grained frame, finishing long and perfumed Rating: 91-93 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2019)
Tight and very focused this year with blackberries and olive and bark undertones. Full body, chewy tannins and a savory and juicy finish. Solid. Rating: 92-93 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2019)
The blend is 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 13% Petit Verdot. The yields were just 25 hl/ha here, and the declared alcohol is 14.5%. A very pretty nose, with black cherry compote, dressed with a touch of currant and a rose petal perfume. For Kirwan, this seems delightfully convincing. The palate has real elegance, the aromatics of the nose translating through to a gently polished and supple weight of summer fruits, with an elegant frame of tannins and a fresh acidity. This is bright, convincing, polished and integrated, and has to be one of the better wines from Kirwan I can recall tasting in a very long time. Maybe ever. Well done. Rating: 92-94 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2019)
The wine's richness is concentrated, offering black plum flavors and dense tannins all bound together in a ripe wine. Acidity shoots through the bold black fruits, giving the wine intensity and certainly a great future. Rating: 95 Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast www.winemag.com (Apr 2019)
The dark and serious fruit here is less exuberant than some and heads towards a more intellectual take on the vintage, possibly due to the concentrating effect of the 25hl/ha yields, a result of mildew and the summer heat. It has great persistency and spice, although the aromatics take a while to reveal themselves. The fresh acidity suggests this is going to age extremely well. 50% new oak. 13% Petit Verdot makes up the blend. Drinking range: 2027 - 2040 Rating: 93 Jane Anson, Decanter (Mar 2019)
Château Kirwan
Margaux Troisième cru 1855
The distinctively Irish name is derived from Mark Kirwan who, in 1751, married the daughter of Sir John Collingwood, who had purchased La Terre Noble de la Salle in 1710. Their Irish ancestory allowed the Kirwans to escape the worst privations of the Revolution and to emerge in the Napoleonic era bigger and better than before. Unusually for a Bordelais estate, the vineyard area at 37 hectares is unchanged since. Château Kirwan came into the hands of the Schÿler family in 1925, and they own it to this day.
Château Kirwan is in the village of Cantenac. The vineyards, with vines an average of 30 years old, are planted at 9000 vines per hectare with 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and an unusually high 8% Petit Verdot, planted on the classic Haut Médoc terroir of deep Pyrenean gravels up to six metres deep. Production is around 200,000 bottles, representing 40-45hl/ha. Picking is by hand, into small (6 kg) boxes for transport to the winery, where the grapes are double-sorted before fermentation in tulip-shaped concrete tanks, using selected yeasts and malolactic bacteria to ensure the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations happen simultaneously, over a period of 7 to 15 days at temperatures controlled not to exceed 25-26C. Pumping-over is used over the 18-25 day time in vat. The Grand Vin spends up to 18-21 months in barrel, of which around a third are new every year. The wines are racked every 3 or 4 months and fined with egg white.
Whilst not being among the cream of the Margaux crop, Château Kirwan is a steady producer and relatively good value. A tendency to slightly over-extracted fruit and lots of well-toasted oak has abated now that Eric Boissenot has taken over from Michel Rolland as consultant oenologist
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those on the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do contact our private client team via email or on 020 7018 0187.
Ordering
Prices are all in bond by the case size stated.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment to buy wines on release, as long as the release price is within the upper and lower price bands set by you on the pre-order form. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability but providing this firm commitment to buy effectively gives you priority and is a good idea for the most desirable wines.
Wines listed on the website can be ordered in the usual way via the website wishlist order form. You can also send orders directly to our private client team via email. Please note that, for the most sought-after wines, priority will be given to those who ordered the same wines last year and to those that have pre-ordered.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of email confirmation. Pre-orders are not binding if the release price is above your upper price band.
Invoices are all raised at the in bond price (excluding any duty and VAT) which will become payable at the prevailing rates when the wines arrive in the UK, should you wish to take duty paid delivery.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We regret we cannot accept credit cards for en primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (at 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 £500. Orders below this total will be charged an administration and handling fee of £16.50+ VAT when invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery of 2022 Bordeaux bought en primeur is expected during 2025. Delivery dates may vary as wines are shipped from Bordeaux at different times.
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). Immediate payment of invoices is then required by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option but please note that confirmed orders are still binding even if the final invoice has not yet been issued.
Please specify on your wishlist order form where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. If this is to a third-party bonded warehouse, please specify the relevant account details. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue a second invoice for duty and VAT at the prevailing rate when the wines are available for delivery.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the format you want. While most of our listings are for 75cl bottles, we can source wines in any format that is offered by the Château. Please note that format requests cannot be changed once wines have been invoiced. Additional charges for special formats do apply and are as follows:-
- +£18.00 per case of 12 half-bottles
- +£30.00 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£7.50 per case of 3 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£11.00 per case of 6 Magnums
- +£45.00 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£60.00 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.
Storage Options:
Wines bought en primeur won't arrive in the UK until 2025. If you do not wish to take home delivery at that point, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our private client team for more information.