Bordeaux En Primeur
Justerini & Brooks Bordeaux En Primeur
It is a tale of two river banks. Although only separated by some thirty miles; the Medoc and the Right Bank are very different stylistically, historically and culturally. The left bank is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, largely due to the fast draining gravel soils found close to the Garonne estuary. St Emilion and Pomerol are predominantly planted with Merlot and a small smattering of Cabernet Franc. These varieties thrive on the limestone slopes and clay plateau found around St Emilion and Pomerol.
Bordeaux 2022
Anyone who’s had the Bordeaux marketing experience will know that chateaux have a slight obsession with numbers. It’s a statistician’s dream: IPTs, pHs, assemblages, percentage of new oak, hours of sunshine, temperature charts, rainfall. All very impressive, but in 2022, not worth the luxury card they are printed on. We know it was hot – there were forest fires south of Bordeaux and over 2800 heat-related deaths in France, but the ‘22s have little in common with other extreme summers such as 2003.
Bordeaux 2021
After two years tasting in gardens and via zoom, our recent primeurs trip marked a welcome return to Bordeaux. In truth, we had no expectations about this vintage. Unusually, chateaux have been playing their cards close to their chests, so we approached with no preconceptions.
Bordeaux 2020
Numerologists probably decided 2020 was destined for greatness many years ago. Every vintage ending with a zero is marked by success in the same way that seven spells disaster. Whilst 2020 is indeed the culmination of an unmatched trilogy, it was certainly not straightforward for vignerons and winemakers.
Older Vintage reports
How we buy Bordeaux
Every April our Buying and Sales teams travel to Bordeaux to taste the previous year’s crop. We sample hundreds of unfinished wines full of fruit, tannin and acidity. This punishing regime gives Justerini & Brooks an invaluable insight into the quality of the upcoming vintage.
Our expertise allows us to form our buying decisions and provide the detailed advice our customers require. We also conduct regular tastings of maturing and mature vintages of Bordeaux to assess their development and keep abreast of trends. We also travel to Bordeaux ahead of the primeur tastings to meet with key chateaux and get an early glimpse at the forthcoming releases.
Our relationships in Bordeaux
Over a couple of centuries Justerini & Brooks has developed strong relationships with Chateaux owners and negociants, collectively known at the ‘Place de Bordeaux’, who distribute their wines.
In addition to this, we are privileged to be one of the select few official distributors of two of Pomerol’s greatest names: Petrus and Chateau Lafleur. The wines of Pomerol are something of a speciality of ours. We have developed an unrivalled portfolio from this commune that includes: Le Pin, L’Eglise Clinet, Vieux Chateau Certan, L’Evangile, La Fleur Petrus, Hosanna and many more.
How you can buy from Justerinis
If you are interested in learning more about how to start buying with Justerini & Brooks please contact our team at finewine@justerinis.com or +44 (0)20 7484 6400 who will be able to offer personal advise and guide you through your purchasing decision in the coming campaigns.
Why not register with a Personal Cellar and start managing your portfolio today.
Purchasing large formats
When the wine is still in barrel you can choose how you would like your wine bottled. We typically offer halves, magnums, double magnums and imperials for a small surcharge. Some Chateaux offer Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors (price and availability on request).
Large formats are wonderful party pieces for entertaining and special occasions, and usually command a large premium after bottling.
Provenance
When it comes to purchasing fine wine, its provenance is of utmost importance, and can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it gives. The wine you buy from Justerini & Brooks will have come from the Chateau and supplier straight to our cellars in Octavian, Wiltshire. Almost uniquely among all of our competitors, every single case in our warehouse is then landed individually so that the precise case you buy from us is labelled and will be the exact one you will later have delivered out.
Each case is uniquely identified and labelled with the customer’s name, the full details of the wine, and a rotation code that identifies the date that specific case arrived in the warehouse. In a marketplace increasingly exploited by counterfeit wines, buying primeur from Justerini & Brooks is one of the very best safeguards.
Are there risks in buying en primeur?
We recommend that any customer interested in en primeur be vigilant and research the company they are buying from. Primeurs are usually shipped two years after the original campaign and companies can run into trouble in the interim period. One should only buy primeurs from financially secure merchants with a long track record of delivery. We like to think that customers can be reassured that purchasing from Justerini & Brooks is as secure as it gets.
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