- Château Léoville Poyferré 2023 has been released at £674 per 12×75.
- ‘A contender for the best Saint-Julien in show’ said Neal Martin, who awarded a score of 95-97 points.
- Buyers may turn to back-vintage opportunities, including the 2019.
As part of this year’s Bordeaux En Primeur campaign, Château Léoville Poyferré 2023 has been released at €56.50 per bottle ex-négociant, down 32.7% on the 2022 release (€84 per bottle).
It is being offered by the international trade for £674 per 12×75, a 33.5% decrease on the 2022’s opening price (£1,014 a case).
For those interested in value opportunities, there are options in back vintages. See more pricing analysis below.
Critical response
‘Ripe, full and pure’, said James Lawther MW (Jancis Robinson), awarding a score of 17+/20.
William Kelley (The Wine Advocate) called the wine ‘rich and chunky, with a deep core of succulent fruit framed by sweet, generously extracted tannins’. He gave it a barrel score of 93-95 points.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (The Wine Independent) awarded a score of 93-95+ points. She noted aromas of ‘cedar chest and cracked black pepper opening out to a core of juicy plums and fresh blackcurrants followed by hints of Provence herbs, lavender, and mossy tree bark’.
‘Positively stellar’, said Antonio Galloni (Vinous), awarding a score of 95-97 points. He added that the 2023 ‘signals a shift away from the richer style favoured here in the recent past, now moving toward an approach that favours more vibrancy’.
Neal Martin (Vinous) also awarded the wine 95-97 points, considering it a ‘contender for the Saint-Julien in show’.
Jane Anson awarded the wine her joint-second highest score of the vintage, 98 points. According to the critic, the wine is ‘concentrated but with delicious balance’ and is ‘truly a wine for Bordeaux lovers to seek out’.
Pricing analysis
According to the Liv-ex Fair Value methodology, Market Prices of Château Léoville Poyferré are 58.9% correlated with scores from Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW. As shown in the chart below, today’s release falls above the Fair Value regression line. There are highly-rated physical vintages available that may be of interest interest to buyers.
*In 2022, Perrotti-Brown scored the 2013 vintage 92 points. When retasted in 2023, she rescored it 83 points, and described the wine as ‘slightly oxidised and flat’. Under the assumption that her most recently tasted bottle was faulty, the 2013 vintage has not been included it in the above graph.
The 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020 vintages all fall below the trend line and represent Fair Value.
Of these, the 2019 vintage, receiving 96 points from Perrotti-Brown and available at a 9.5% discount to today’s release, may be a compelling option for buyers. The wine also received a 96-point score from Neal Martin, his joint highest of the past decade.
While Perrotti-Brown gave the 2014 vintage a lower score of 92 points, Martin awarded the wine 96 points. Benefitting from extra time in bottle and available at a 4.9% discount to today’s release, it may also be of interest to buyers.
Use our ready-made list to easily spot opportunities in back-vintages of Château Léoville Poyferré 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.
