Liv-ex 2021 Bordeaux En Primeur survey results revealed

By James Bayley

Published: 16 May, 2022

After a two-year pause of En Primeur tastings, the international trade returned to Bordeaux for the 2021 vintage.

Liv-ex, a global marketplace for wine trading, surveyed its global merchant membership to determine how they assessed the new vintage, their top value wines, and price predictions for this year’s releases.

Members were asked to list in order of their preference their top five wines of Bordeaux 2021 irrespective of price. Wines ranked number one by respondents were awarded 10 points, second were given five points, third three, fourth two and fifth one.

Overall, Château Margaux received the highest score, with Château Lafite Rothschild coming in a close second.

READ MORE: 2021 a challenging year for Bordeaux winegrowers

In terms of value – i.e. wines expected to be released for under £600 a case – Château Langoa Barton topped the category. In previous years, Branaire Ducru and Grand Puy Lacoste have led the rankings.

On average, Liv-ex members awarded the 2021 vintage 92.5 points (out of 100), which places it above 2014 (92 points) and a touch below 2017 (92.6).

The majority of respondents (25%) said the vintage did not compare to any of the previous vintages they had tasted. At 21%, the closest vintage comparison was with 2014.

The 2017 vintage also came up in 19% of the answers.

One respondent said that 2021 was "streets ahead of 2011/2012/2013/2014/2017 at this stage."

However, the most pertinent question each year is about the pricing of the new releases. Merchants gave estimates of the ex-négociant prices for the basket of wines, which Liv-ex keeps the same each year.

Their predictions showed that, on average, merchants expect (not want) 2021 release prices to be 2.7% lower than for the 2020 vintage but up 20.7% on 2019.

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