New Release – Pape Clement 2018, 12×75, £794, 97-98 Pts & d’Armailhac 2018, 12×75, £420, 93-94 Pts

Pape Clement 2018 has released today at £794 per case of 12. A wine that has been awarded 96-98 from Lisa Perrotti-Brown of The Wine Advocate, 97-98 from James Suckling and 95-97 from Jeb Dunnuck. Such scores cement its place above the 2015 and 2016, which trade today at £750 and £800 per case of 12, the 2009 which has reached the heights of £1,450 and only surpassed by the perfect scoring 2010 which trades at £1,700 and the 99 scoring 2005 which trades at £1,600. As such it is a good buy, which at £66 per bottle is a humdinger of a wine of this renown and score.

Chateau Pape Clement has the distinction of being the oldest clearly identifiable vineyard in Bordeaux. The property was planted in 1300 by Berald de Goth and presented to his brother Bertrand upon his appointment as Archbishop of Bordeaux. Bertrand became Pope Clement V in 1306 and gifted the vineyard to the incoming Archbishop, Cardinal Arnaud de Canteloup. The estate remained property of the church until the revolution and was sold a number of times in the following years. Jean-Baptiste Clerc assumed ownership in 1858 and the Chateau flourished, commanding the same prices as the Medoc’s Second Growth wines. After a long period of decline, Paul Montagne purchased the ailing estate in 1939 and in partnership with winemaker Emile Peynaud managed to turn its fortunes around. Since 1985, the property has been producing top class wine under Montagne’s son and Bernard Magrez with the famous Michel Rolland as a consultant.

Château Pape Clément achieved Premier Cru status in the revised 1959 classification of Graves and still retains this despite becoming part of the Pessac-Leognan appellation in 1987 after the division of Graves. The wine is rich and aromatic yet well-structured with flavours of concentrated fruit. Pape Clement is undoubtedly one of the finest wines produced in Pessac-Leognan.

Chateau d’Armailhac has also released this morning for £420 per case of 12 bottles. We view d’Armailhac as one of the perennial must buy wines of Pauillac. In fact, it is so popular that it has sold out within an hour for the last four years. In 2018 it has been awarded 91-93 points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown of The Wine Advcoate, calling it a ‘wonderfully opulent D’Armailhac!’ This excellent score is echoed by Jeb Dunnuck with 92-94 points and James Suckling who has awarded it 93-94 calling it ‘attractive, earthy aftertaste. Layered and dense’.

These scores suggest this could be the finest ever from here, which priced at £35 a bottle, offers an utterly superb price point. To put today’s release into perspective the 92 point scoring 2010 trades at £550 per case, the 91 point scoring 2009 at £520 and the 90 point scoring 2005 at £600. The Estate produce an average of 18,000 cases per vintage, a wine that has retuned 62% on average from barrel to current market price.  We recommend this highly.

Chateau d’Armailhac was once part of the Mouton Rothschild vineyards. As such, it boasts impressively deep gravel, 20% of which is clay-limestone, and the vines have the very impressive average age of 46 years, with one fifth of the vines dating back to 1890. As such, it embodies much of Mouton Rothschild’s greatness.

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