- Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2023 has been released for £546 per 12×75.
- ‘Beautifully defined and focused’, said Neal Martin, who awarded a barrel score of 93-95 points.
- Buyers looking for value opportunities may turn to the 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages.
As part of this year’s Bordeaux En Primeur campaign, Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2023 has been released at €45.6 per bottle ex-négociant, down 22.4% on the 2022 release (€58.80).
It is being offered by the international trade for £546 per 12×75, a 23.7% decrease on the 2022’s opening price (£716 a case).
At this release price, buyers interested in value opportunities may turn to back vintages. See more pricing analysis below.
Critical response
James Lawther MW (Jancis Robinson) gave the wine a score of 16.5+/20 points, describing it as ‘relatively subdued but upright, firm and structured’.
According to Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (The Wine Independent), ‘the 2023 Grand-Puy-Lacoste slowly emerges with restrained notes of crushed black and red currants, fresh blackberries, and raspberry leaves plus suggestions of lilacs and underbrush with a waft of wild thyme’. She gave a score of 91-93 points.
William Kelley (The Wine Advocate) awarded a score range of 93-95 points. He described it as a ‘fleshy and supple wine that’s seamless and sensual, with good depth at the core, beautifully integrated tannins and a lively, charming profile’.
While commenting that the 2023 is ‘obviously not as powerful as the previous vintage’, Neal Martin (Vinous) calls the wine ‘beautifully defined and focused’. He gave a score of 93-95 points and adds that ‘it will require less bottle-age compared to recent vintages’.
‘The 2023 is powerful, reticent and shy’, said Antonio Galloni (Vinous), giving a score of 92-94 points.
Jane Anson, giving a score of 94 points, described the wine as ‘great quality’, adding that ‘you can see the fine ageing potential stretching ahead’.
Pricing analysis
According to the Liv-ex Fair Value methodology, Market Prices of Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste are 63.5% correlated with scores from Neal Martin, the most influential critic of Bordeaux En Primeur according to Liv-ex members’. As shown in the chart below, today’s release falls above the Fair Value regression line.
At this price, today’s release is one of the most expensive vintages of the past decade available on the market. There are highly-rated, Fair Value options in back-vintages for buyers looking for opportunities.
Neal Martin awarded his joint-highest score of the decade, 97 points, to the 2019 vintage. At a Market Price of £490, it falls below the Fair Value trend line, and may be a compelling option. Lisa Perrotti-Brown awarded the wine 96 points, her highest of the past decade.
At a discount of 12.1% to today’s release, the 95-point 2018 vintage also may be of interest. Antonio awarded the wine his joint-highest score of the decade, 96 points.
Also receiving 96 points from Galloni, the 2020 vintage falls below the Fair Value line and may present reasonable value to buyers.
Use our ready-made list to easily spot opportunities in back-vintages of Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste and other Left-Bank wines.
Our Bordeaux En Primeur 2023 page contains everything you need to know about this year’s campaign. You can also sign up for our daily En Primeur email alerts using the form below.
Liv-ex analysis is drawn from the world’s most comprehensive database of fine wine prices. The data reflects the real time activity of Liv-ex’s 620+ merchant members from across the globe. Together they represent the largest pool of liquidity in the world – currently £100m of bids and offers across 20,000 wines.
