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Wine
Where available, tasting scores and notes are by Robert Parker (RP) and taken from his website www.erobertparker.com  or Stephen Tanzer (ST) from www.wineaccess.com

Year

Price per
Bottle
including
VAT

Tasting
Score/Notes
Best Drinking

ALTER EGO de PALMER
Margaux

2nd Wine of Chateau Palmer
The top wine currently sells for approx. £192 for a 75cl bottle! So this represents real value.

Vinous.com/Neal Martin - The 2017 Alter Ego was bottled a little later than others at the end of August 2019. Deep garnet in colour, it has a refined bouquet with blackberry, cedar, crushed violets, hints of orange pith and incense, all very well defined but understated.
The palate is medium-bodied with a lightly spiced entry. Fine tannins, a little compact being so close to bottling, yet it displays the tension and focus that I observed out of barrel with an attractive marine influence on the aftertaste.

PALMER
Margaux

Vinous.com/Neal Martin- The 2016 Palmer has a generous, slightly lactic bouquet of opulent red fruit infused with touches of dark chocolate, although it calms down and gains more grace with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and well-judged acidity. Very harmonious, revealing cedar and mint toward the extraordinarily persistent finish. This is another classy, persistent Margaux with a long future ahead. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.

HALF-BOTTLES - a great way to try a top wine, without having to pay the full price for standard bottle.

TOP Vintage
 

PALMER
Margaux

Vinous.com/Antonio Galloni - The 2014 Palmer is endowed with serious depth and intensity. Black cherry, bittersweet chocolate, spice, leather, tobacco and menthol infuse the 2014 with striking midpalate depth, unctuousness and texture. Silky, plush and polished, the 2014 will likely offer a very long window of pure drinking pleasure. It is one of the sexiest, raciest 2014s readers will come across. The blend is 49 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 45 % Merlot and 6 % Petit Verdot aged in 60-65 % new French oak.

PALMER
Margaux

Vinous.com/Neal Martin - The 2010 Palmer has an outgoing, intense and multifaceted bouquet with black cherries, boysenberry, crushed violets and hints of cassis - your quintessential Margaux turned up to eleven. The palate is medium-bodied with very supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Headier than its Margaux peers, it builds in the mouth with a complex, marine-tinged finish with cracked black pepper lingering on the aftertaste. This is an outstanding Palmer.

PALMER
Margaux

Vinous.com/Antonio Galloni The 2005 Château Palmer is in a gorgeous place right now where it is just beginning to show the very early signs of aromatic development. Dark, powerful and seductive, the 2005 is a totally effortless wine. Black cherry, mocha, plum, licorice, new leather and spice open up first, followed by subtler hints of rosemary and lavender that add nuance. Even with all of its overt radiance and intensity, the Palmer retains the sense of freshness that is such a signature of the year. Readers lucky enough to own the 2005 can look forward to many more years of exceptional drinking.

BARON de BRANE
Margaux

2nd Wine of Chateau Brane Cantenac
The top wine currently sells for approx. £66 for a 75cl bottle! So this represents real value.

Vinous.com/Antonio Galloni -  The 2017 Baron de Brane is a pretty wine to drink now and over the next few years. Dark cherry, mocha, spice and new leather are all nicely pushed forward. There is a good bit of immediacy to the 2017, if not a ton of depth or persistence.

BARON de BRANE
Margaux

2nd Wine of Chateau Brane Cantenac
The top wine currently sells for approx. £96 for a 75cl bottle! So this represents real value.

Vinous.com/Neal Martin - The 2010 Baron de Brane has more detail and clarity on the nose compared to the 2009, displaying black fruit, gravel and cedar aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, more fruit concentration than the 2009 and a poised, savoury, slightly meaty finish. This is a fine Deuxième Vin.

BRANE-CANTENAC
Margaux

RP/Lisa Perrotti-Brown -  Medium to deep garnet-purple coloured, the 2017 Brane-Cantenac starts off a tad restrained and reluctant to show, opening out to notes of baked blackberries, plum preserves and crème de cassis with hints of cigar box and tar. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wearing a lot of muscular fruit with firm, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with great length. Needs time!

BRANE-CANTENAC
Margaux

Vinous.com/Neal Martin -  The 2016 Brane-Cantenac has been on a roll of late, under the watchful eye of Henri Lurton. This latest bottled vintage is superb. The divine, pure blackberry and bilberry bouquet develops touches of graphite in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, silky-smooth texture and a superb bead of acidity. This is not a powerful Brane-Cantenac, and it is perhaps less austere than I suspected en primeur, but it should drink beautifully over the next three decades. If you have a penchant for traditional claret, it really doesn’t come better than this.

CHATEAU CLARKE
Baron Edmond de Rothschild
Listrac

RP/Neal Martin - The 2015 Clarke has an attractive blackberry and briary scented nose with just a hint of dark chocolate emanating from the new oak. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannin, the acidity nicely judged with fine tension on the cedar and tobacco-tinged finish. I appreciate the freshness and refinement demonstrated by this Château Clarke, a classic Listrac that should give 10-12 years of pleasure.

CHATEAU LASCOMBES
Margaux

 RP -  An intriguing blend of 48% Merlot, 48% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot, this inky purple-coloured wine is ripe, progressively styled, big, rich, thick and juicy. In other words, the 2012 Lascombes is loaded. No doubt the high percentage of Merlot in the final blend gives this wine a fleshiness and succulence that is unusual in the Médoc

BIN END PRICE

SEGLA
Margaux

2nd Wine of Chateau Rauzan-Segla
The top wine currently sells for approx. £84 for a 75cl bottle! So this represents real value.

RP/Neal Martin - The 2015 Segla is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and a "seasoning" of 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, representing just over half the total crop, matured in 25% new wood. It has a fragrant, very precise bouquet with mineral-rich, very pure blackberry, blueberry and cold flint-like aromas. There is wonderful tension here for a deuxième vin. The palate is medium-bodied with a juicy opening, just a tingle of spice on the tip of the tongue. There is very fine tension here, moderate weight but great persistence and sense of energy on the finish. On a budget? Thinking of a second wine? Look no further.

TOP Vintage - Great Value!

SEGLA
Margaux

2nd Wine of Chateau Rauzan-Segla

As above, but
HALF-BOTTLES - a great way to try a top wine, without having to pay the full price for standard bottle.
 

TOP Vintage - Great Value!

CHATEAU
RAUZAN-SEGLA
Margaux

 Vinous.com/Antonio Galloni - The 2017 Rauzan-Ségla is coming together very nicely. Soft and silky, the 2017 is a wine of pure and total finesse. Sweet red cherry and plum fruit, tobacco, cedar and licorice add pretty top notes, but more than anything else, the 2017 impresses with its statuesque elegance and total balance; nothing in particular stands out. For that reason, Rauzan-Ségla is the sort of wine that is easy to overlook, and yet all the elements of a top notch Left-Bank wine are present.  

CHATEAU
RAUZAN-SEGLA
Margaux

 Vinous.com/Neal Martin - The 2016 Rauzan-Ségla has an elegant bouquet that needs some coaxing from the glass, eventually revealing red berry fruit, rose petal, chai tea and light bergamot aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with very supple tannins that lend a silky-smooth texture. This has a fine line of acidity and impressive harmony on the finish. Wonderful.

CHATEAU
RAUZAN-SEGLA
Margaux

 Vinous.com/Neal Martin - The 2015 Rauzan-Ségla, picked September 10 to October 9, has a lucid deep colour. No great surprise that this performed exactly as it did a few weeks earlier. The bouquet bursts from the glass with fragrant red berry fruit, crushed violets and iris, almost penetrating in its intensity. You can feel the energy coiled up inside this nascent Margaux. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. This has such a backbone and structure, layers of sappy black fruit suffused with crushed stone, a seam of graphite that lends it a Pauillac-like allure. It feels very long and intense, a Rauzan-Ségla destined to last decades rather than years.