En Primeur Releases: 5 - 11 May
Bordeaux Index
11 May 2025
Bordeaux En Primeur 2024 is officially underway - here’s a roundup of this week's releases
2024 Château Cheval Blanc
Release Price: GBP 1650 per 6x75cl IB (other formats available)
95-97pts Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider | "Black raspberries, plums, flowers, espresso, citrus, and hints of chocolate fill the perfume. On the palate, the wine is fresh, long, clean, and intense. It exhibits lift and vibrancy, along with intensity and purity. This is a classic, firm, and fresh vintage for Cheval Blanc that is long, vibrant, and provides tension, length, and purity from beginning to end. The key to this year's vintage was the willingness to make strict selections, as well as allowing grapes from 37 parcels into the blend, ensuring a true representation of the vineyard. As you can see, this is one of the stars of the vintage. The wine is made from 48% Cabernet Franc, 46% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. 12.8% ABV, 3.61 pH. The harvest began September 18 for the Merlot, finishing their Cabernet Franc on October 3. Drink from 2030-2055."
2024 Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc
Release Price: GBP 643 per 6x75cl IB (other formats available)
95-97pts Antonio Galloni, Vinous | "The 2024 Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc is complex, dynamic and an absolute delight. Everything about the 2024 speaks to class. Brisk acids drive through a core of citrus fruit, almond, mint, chamomile and white pepper. More than anything else, I admire the wine's tension and energy. Clean saline notes extend the dry, bracing finish."
2024 Smith Haut Lafitte
Release Price: GBP 372 per 6x75cl IB (other formats available)
95-97pts Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider | "Spicy red fruits blend with dried herbs, coco, plums, and tobacco on the nose. The palate is modern-classic in style, with lift, length, and vibrancy, leaving you with cherries, strawberries, cocoa, and mint in the mid-palate that carries through to the long, finish. Picking took place from September 18 - October 9. The wine is a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, and is aging in 60% New, French oak barrels. 13.2% ABV. pH 3.65. Drink from 2028-2042."
2024 Lynch Bages
Release Price: GBP 360 per 6x75cl IB (other formats available)
93-95pts Antonio Galloni, Vinous | "The 2024 Lynch-Bages is packed. Cedar, scorched earth, licorice, incense and pipe tobacco weave through a core of dark, sepia-toned fruit. I especially admire the long, polished finish and overall balance here. The 2024 is a virile Lynch Bages with a bright future. Tasted two times."
