Château Angélus 2021 was released this morning (23 May) at €265 per bottle ex-Bordeaux, according to Liv-ex, up by around 2% on the opening price of the 2020 vintage last year. Merchants were offering Angélus 2021 for £3,120 (12x75cl in bond).
Decanter’s Georgie Hindle scored Angélus 2021 95 points, praising its ‘exceptional finesse’. She said the wine represents an excellent effort, following a Bordeaux 2021 growing season that presented many weather challenges.
This vintage of Angélus contains a record proportion of Cabernet Franc, making up 60% of the blend.
Analyst group Wine Lister said the release was around 2% below the current price of the 2018 vintage, although prices varied by merchant.
Commenting on the price, Matthew O’Connell, CEO of LiveTrade at Bordeaux Index, said the release was likely to appeal more to keen followers of the Château, rather than drive wider buying at this stage.
Angélus is the latest top St-Emilion wine to be released in the fledgling Bordeaux 2021 en primeur campaign, following Cheval Blanc and Pavie last week.
There is a sense that the pace of en primeur releases is picking up – with Léoville Barton 2021 and Léoville-Las Cases 2021 also making debuts today and last Friday respectively.
Château Léoville Barton 2021, released today, was being offered by Farr Vintners and Bordeaux Index at £669 (12x75cl in bond).
The wine was rated 94 points by Decanter. ‘I like this a lot,’ wrote Decanter’s Georgie Hindle in her tasting note. ‘Smooth and silky tannins give the gentle frame, letting the strawberry, creamy raspberry and red cherry fruit do the talking,’ she wrote.
It marks the final vintage produced at the estate prior to the passing of the highly respected Anthony Barton.
O’Connell at Bordeaux Index said the significance of the vintage for the estate, plus a ‘reasonably well-judged price’ on release, ‘has led to good demand’.
Wine Lister said, ‘An opening price of £55.71 [per bottle, in bond] for 2021 comes below market prices of five of the six preceding vintages’.
Léoville-Las Cases 2021 was released at €169 per bottle ex-Bordeaux, down by nearly 15% on the opening price of the 2020 vintage, according to Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade. It said international merchants were offering the wine for £1,950 (12x75cl in bond).
‘A brilliant Las Cases in 2021,’ wrote Hindle in her tasting note for Decanter Premium subscribers. She gave the wine 95 points.
Liv-ex said buyers looking for physical vintages might be interested in the 2014 wine, available at around a 32% discount to the new release.
Langoa Barton 2021, rated 93 points by Decanter, was also released today, at €29.4 per bottle ex-Bordeaux – level with the 2020 debut price, Lister added. Bordeaux Index offered the wine for £355 (12x75cl in bond).
The wine will eventually be bottled with a special label to mark 200 years of Barton family ownership.
Among other releases, Château La Lagune 2021 made its debut. Hindle described the wine as a ‘stellar effort’ in the vintage. Rating the wine 92 points, she said, ‘It’s certainly on the more delicate side, but this has such vivacious energy and will be lovely to enjoy soon.’
It was being offered at £320 (12x75cl in bond), according to Liv-ex, having been released around 2% up on the opening price for 2020, on an ex-Bordeaux basis (€ per bottle).
