What 2015 Bordeaux futures are you buying?

WINE TALK
1

So far i havent ever bought futures but was thinking about getting a couple cases of the great 2015 vintage. I am a left bank Bordeaux drinker, primarily cab, and was thinking about some case or half case purchases. So far the one that caught my attention was the Cantemerle. At $350 a case i dont think i can really lose on this one.

I am 48 right now so i feel like this may be the only opportunity i might get to have good 15-20 year aged Bordeax without buying up 2010, ,2009, 2005 vintages.

2

As attractive as some of the 2014 and 2015 offers have been I don’t plan on tying up any funds with futures.
I’ll take my chances that prices remain relatively stable when the bottles reach the shelves.
At 58 I don’t mind buying wine now that I won’t drink until I’m 75 or so, but I won’t load up on it by any means.

3

I’ll likely buy some Pomerol from 2015, but am not convinced I need to do it on futures. Gazin looks like a very fine deal

4

I’m 38 ( keeping it in the 8s) and I’m more or less done with EP. I like the best wines at 25-35+ years old (barely started on my 95s) and the ‘basic wines’ can be bought at any time once actually bottled.

5

Gazin was lovely from barrel in 2015, Neal. Good call.

6

I am 60 and too old to rationally be buying Bordeaux futures but I must admit that one really has seemed attractive to me. I have not tasted any 2015 Bordeaux however - Panos, what did you think of this one?

7

Where are you seeing it, Howard? The only place I see on this coast anyway is B-21

8

Pretty lofty score by JS, but then again, he’s tossing around a lot of 95s and 96s on some basic Crus, in addition to Cantermerle.

9

He has gone completely over the edge. Seriously, I don’t think he has given a score in the 80s since . . . the 80s.

10

Funny enough, I broke up with JS after some of his ratings on 1989/1990 wines. I bought a case of one wine that he rated 96-100, which was swill. WS pulled it from their materials and it never appeared in their periodic book. And later he rated it a 79.

11

Hi Howard, on my website I have published already in late April, a long introduction to the barrel samples of 2015, as well as a series of tastings notes on most major appellations, although I have not yet published on Pauillac and the northern Medoc. Basically, 2014 is underrated, with a different (higher acidity) balance than 2015. 2015 may be overrated, but there are some truly great wines in 2015. So the highs of 2015 are somewhat higher than the highs of 2014, but it is by no means a “large scaled” vintage a la 2010 or 2009. In some cases the samples lacked mid palate presence, but I believe that some writers stressed that too much, perhaps neglecting a bit the “filling out” role of barrel aging. In some (better) cases 2015 has the structure of 2005 plus the softness of 1985 (two more “5” vintages). Wines like Palmer, Margaux have almost Pauillac like expressions for example. Many Margaux wines in general were great. Most wines are not reaching the high tannins of 2010, for example, although some Moueix wines this year seem to have loads of (over evident) tannin and recall a bit more another “5” vintage, 1975. On the Right Bank, the best wines handled the high alcohol levels best by earlier picking of Merlot (Cheval Blanc) or more careful extractions (Chauvin, Corbin). A welcome trend indeed, in Saint Emilion, is some “dialing back” of new oak and uber extraction, for some estates at least.

Anyway, the wines generally from 2015 come across as more elegant and classic than some were expecting. But please I have loads of pics, videos and notes on my website, so you can get lots of info there. I will post some tasting notes here, later on, for example top ten reds, top ten whites, top ten value wines, once everything is posted.

Cheers! [cheers.gif]
Panos

12

Got an email from someone - I think it was K&L - that was around the same price Joe quoted. Haven’t really been seeing futures here yet, but I really don’t look for futures that much. If the price for Climens is like the price for the 2014, that is something I could go for.

13

Why don’t you have a link to your site in your sig or profile?

14

Sorry Neal, I thought I had done so… Anyway, here is the main link to my notes on #Bdx15.
http://www.wine-chronicles.com/blog/bordeaux-2015-barrel-intro/

15

Panos,

I saw your article on Margaux, but did not see Cantemerle mentioned - hence the question. Is there a search feature or links by subject matter or anything like that on your site?

16

Panos,

I saw your article on Margaux, but did not see Cantemerle mentioned - hence the question. Is there a search feature or links by subject matter or anything like that on your site?[/quote]

Egads, Cantemerle being Haut Medoc, I have not yet gotten there, and I may indeed have missed that one. Thing is, smack in the middle of en primeur week, I got ill and had to skip a day. Thus missing some appointments. Anyway, as for a search function, trying to get a new one there so it can be more efficient… Thanks for reading Howard. Cheers to you.

17

JS score actually was something that spooked me but moreso when i looked back on his scores for Cantemerle during some off vintages. A few off vintages still got scored too high so…you have to take it with a grain of salt. But $30 per is attractive. I have a few 2010 Cantemerles i bought at binnys for $35 while EP was about $44.

18

Buy for the alternate size bottle. There really is no other reason.

19

As tempting as this is, the '10 is still around at $42/bottle. I haven’t tasted any '15’s but the '10 Cantemerle is a great bottle of bdx for $<45. Potentially a better left bank vintage, but more importantly finished, in bottle, and 5yrs older.

20

I was intrigued by Enclos Tourmaline (Pomerol) and bought a 3-pak. The terroir and the wine-making team seemed excellent. I bought now because there seem to be only 250 cases.