Chateau Latour has beaten Margaux and Lafite to be the wine of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, according to a survey of the international wine trade.
Meanwhile, Calon-Ségur was the winner in value for money terms, and Cos d’Estournel was the most disappointing wine of the harvest, according to the poll conducted by fine wine exchange Liv-ex.
Tasters gave the vintage as a whole an average points score of 96 out of 100, narrowly ahead of 2005 (ranked 95+).
They expect release prices to be up 120% on 2008 and up 6% on 2005 in euro terms.
However, the weakening of sterling against the euro means this would equate to a 30% price increase over 2005 for UK buyers – or, if prices soar, it could be as high as 50%, according to Liv-ex.
The top ten wines of the 2009 vintage, regardless of price, were named as: Latour, Margaux, Lafite, Mouton, Ausone, Pétrus, Haut-Brion, Lafleur, Palmer and Le Pin.
Top ten in value terms (expected to release at less than £500/case) were: Calon-Ségur, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Léoville Barton, Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Gruaud-Larose, Pontet-Canet, Léoville Poyferré, Haut-Batailley, Armailhac and Langoa Barton.
And the most disappointing were: Cos d’Estournel, Pavie, Troplong Mondot, Léoville Barton, Pichon Lalande, Talbot, Lascombes, Clos Fourtet, Figeac and Léoville Las Cases.
Asked to rank 2000, 2005 and 2009 in terms of quality, 53% put 2009 at the top of the pile, followed by 2005 and 2000.
Many described the vintage as ‘excellent’, but a number voiced concerns about consistency, particularly on the Right Bank, where some wines were judged too alcoholic and over-extracted.
Bordeaux 2009: All the coverage
Written by Richard Woodard
