Bordeaux 2023 Ausone
Credit: Luke Carver
(Image credit: Luke Carver)

St-Emilion estate Château Ausone and St-Julien second growth Château Ducru-Beaucaillou both followed the campaign trend of offering substantial cuts on last year’s price for the 2022 vintage.

Both also received critical praise for their 2023 wines. Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent, Georgie Hindle, rated Ducru-Beaucaillou 97-points and Ausone 96-points.

See Decanter’s full verdict on the Bordeaux 2023 vintage, plus ratings and tasting notes on the top-scoring wines

She described the St-Julien second growth as having ‘a crushed velvet texture’ and ‘effortless purity of fruit’.

Ausone, too, was ‘clear and juicy with a clean, direct, mineral backbone’, but, for an estate with its pedigree, perhaps lacked, ‘some star power and a bit more heft’.

Ausone pricing

Ausone’s ex-négociant price was €432 per bottle, down by around 23.5% in price from its 2022 release. UK merchants are offering the wine at £5,280 per 12 bottles in bond (IB).

Liv-ex , a global marketplace for the trade, said that, despite the price cut, the new release was one of the more expensive recent Ausone vintages currently available.

Ausone 2019, in particular, has a case price of around £4,800 (12x75cl IB) and similarly high – if not higher – critical scores to the latest en primeur wine.

The second label, Chapelle d’Ausone, was available at £1,452 per dozen.

Ducru-Beaucaillou pricing

Ducru-Beaucaillou 2023, meanwhile, was down price by a heftier 35.5% year-on-year, at €120 ex-négociant. UK merchant offers were £1,488 per dozen IB. Farr Vintners noted this was down from an ‘ambitious’ offer of £2,244 per case for the 2022 vintage en primeur.

The release compares more favourably to similarly-scored vintages according to Liv-ex’s metrics, though the impressive 2018 is available for just a small premium.

Analyst and consultancy group Wine Lister thought it was a ‘very attractive release price that should incite demand’.

Second label Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou is being offered for £365 (12x75cl IB).

Late Lynch-Bages release

After a string of French bank holidays kept last week’s release schedule subdued, this week has seen a notable up-tick in offers.

Yesterday (Tuesday 14 May) was particularly busy with close to 10 major classed-growth releases. These included the Clarence Dillon stable (Haut-Brion and La Mission), as well as Léoville and Langoa Barton.

Towards the end of the morning, Château Lynch-Bages 2023 and its stable appeared, too.

Farr Vintners said, ‘Owner Jean-Charles Cazes has read the memo and made sure that this is offered at a lower price than any vintage of Lynch-Bages in the market today.’

Down by around 33% on the 2022 price, the new vintage was being offered at £840 (12x75cl IB), with the second wine, Echo de Lynch, at £310/dz.

Although the campaign is still in – somewhat – early stages, with many leading estates yet to release, a pattern around release prices is starting to emerge.

Wine Lister has calculated that, so far, ex-négociant prices are down 20% on the 2022 and down 8% on the 2021, while average recommended UK onward selling prices are down 19% on the 2022 and down 6% on the 2021.

Rupert Millar
Rupert Millar
Assistant Editor