Spring is the time of year that the wine world descends on Bordeaux for the annual en primeur tastings - that is an opportunity for a first taste of wines from the previous year produced by the top estates. Fun as it might sound these are very young wines, that aren't yet ready to be bottled let alone drunk in fact it'll be another 3 years before most of them arrive with customers.
Then a short while later merchants up and down the country will buy up allocations of wine, and sell these "futures" onto customers. You have to ask yourself why anyone would bother to buy wine in any quantity that they have never tasted and whose long term appeal is unproven. En primeur can be an opportunity to snap up small production, top quality wines and have in the past offered excellent value for money with prices well below the eventual release prices. For the top wines this is still true in good vintages, 2005 Petrus for instance released at £10,000 a case, and has a current market value of around £22,000 a case - a healthy profit. But outside these does it really offer brilliant value? Since the excellent 2000 vintage en primeur prices have risen steadily, and 2005 prices went through the roof. Now as last years wines are tasted, whilst the wines aren't bad they won't last forever and there is a suspicion, that the prices won't really be tempting, particularly when you can pick up bottles of Bordeaux from known vintages at lower or similar prices from vintages such at 1999, 2001 or 2004.
A great example is Chateau Palmer, 2006 (a reasonable vintage) sells for around £95 a bottle, or over £113 once you take duty into account - yet a pre 2005 vintage from a good year - such as 2001 is currently available from SH Jones at just £85.95 for a single bottle or an amazing £75.20 as part of a mixed case. It doesn't take a genius to work out where the value is.
Spring is the time of year that the wine world descends on Bordeaux for the annual en primeur tastings - that is an opportunity for a first taste of wines from the previous year produced by the top estates. Fun as it might sound these are very young wines, that aren't yet ready to be bottled let alone drunk in fact it'll be another 3 years before most of them arrive with customers.
Then a short while later merchants up and down the country will buy up allocations of wine, and sell these "futures" onto customers. You have to ask yourself why anyone would bother to buy wine in any quantity that they have never tasted and whose long term appeal is unproven. En primeur can be an opportunity to snap up small production, top quality wines and have in the past offered excellent value for money with prices well below the eventual release prices. For the top wines this is still true in good vintages, 2005 Petrus for instance released at £10,000 a case, and has a current market value of around £22,000 a case - a healthy profit. But outside these does it really offer brilliant value? Since the excellent 2000 vintage en primeur prices have risen steadily, and 2005 prices went through the roof. Now as last years wines are tasted, whilst the wines aren't bad they won't last forever and there is a suspicion, that the prices won't really be tempting, particularly when you can pick up bottles of Bordeaux from known vintages at lower or similar prices from vintages such at 1999, 2001 or 2004.
A great example is Chateau Palmer, 2006 (a reasonable vintage) sells for around £95 a bottle, or over £113 once you take duty into account - yet a pre 2005 vintage from a good year - such as 2001 is currently available from SH Jones at just £85.95 for a single bottle or an amazing £75.20 as part of a mixed case. It doesn't take a genius to work out where the value is.
The second wine (or label) has long been a treasure trove for the intrepid Bordeaux buyer with an eye on their purse strings. Since the superb 2000 vintage when prices rose, in the eyes of some scandalously, for even averagely rated chateau the second wine has taken on an added significance as an opportunity to buy wines produced at top chateau at a fraction of the price of their "Grand Vin".
Depending on the chateaux, individual plots of a vineyard may be selected, often those of the youngest vines, and fermented separately. Whilst these wines receive what might be regarded as "inferior" treatment in the winery, using less new oak barrels to keep cost down for example, they generally contain the same cepage as the estates Grand Vin and are vinified under the care of the same wine maker. In short, you are getting the same expertise and recipe made with just slightly less than the exacting care one associates with Cru Classe Bordeaux.
Beyond the obvious financial benefits second wines are generally designed to be drunk younger than their bigger brothers and as such reward those who have neither the space nor patience to age fine claret for 20+ years. Here then, are some of best performing second labels for those keen to explore what these wines have to offer:
La Réserve de Léoville Barton (Chateau Leoville Barton) - Elegant and concentrated with lovely fruit and well-balanced tannins. This is classic Saint-Julien with the same attractive pricing that one has come to associate with Leoville Barton.
Larose de Gruaud (Chateau Gruaud Larose) - The elegant wine offers a distinctive nose of blackberry and wet sand with a ripe palate and a toasty finish.
Le Fiefs de Lagrange (Chateau Lagrange) - A definite food wine with a lively palate and bags of tannin.
Alter Ego de Palmer (Chateau Palmer) - One of the great second wines from a chateau which frequently punches above its 3eme cru status. Alter Ego is intensely fresh and fruity with an elegance of both bouquet and tannin that can be appreciated within the first few years of bottling.