The campaign is over and the dust is settling, so what are our final thoughts on 2006?

Anyone who has been following our missives over the past three months will have picked up that our main focus this year was on ensuring that we are providing value. Not only were the armit prices amongst the sharpest to be found but our offers were deliberately selective and on every occasion, our first question was “does this provide value for money”?

With the benefit of all prices now known, we have looked again at the wines that we have available to offer and have come up with what we consider to be the value picks of this year’s crop.

Best Value Wine Overall

1^st Place -  Grand Puy Lacoste £300 IB - SOLD OUT

This is a cracker and we loved it, scoring it 18/20. The major critics too were all highly impressed, none more so than Jancis Robinson (18/20) and Neal Martin (94-96) who described it as “sublime” and put it amongst his five runners-up of the vintage (Le Pin was his winner). Quite simply, if you are only going to buy one case this year, this is the one to buy.

2^nd Place – Gruaud-Larose £260 IB

Excellent wine and our best value pick in St Julien. Genuine second-growth quality at a give-away price.

3^rd Place- Domaine de Chevalier Rouge £235 IB

Best value in the Graves and a really elegant claret to thrill the classicists.

Best Value sub £200

Red – Bourgneuf-Vayron, Pomerol  £180 IB

You will not find a better Pomerol than this at this price. Ever.

White – Caillou-Blanc de Ch. Talbot £120 IB

Totally delicious and only £10 a bottle.

Pounds Per Parker Point Prize

Pontet Canet £395 IB - SOLD OUT

93-95 points Robert Parker

This scores higher than Lafite and Haut Brion and the same as the brilliant Margaux but is almost a tenth of the price. Also a hit with Neal Martin, The Wine Spectator, Steven Tanzer and us!

The full list by appellation - Buy here!

Latest releases

Wines released so far

Full vintage report

"I did not expect the highlights of 2006 to be as promising as they turned out. There was little talk about the vintage following the harvest, and after the wine press and the proprietors exhausted themselves with their praise of the 2005s, there was little need to start additional speculative fires. However, the 2006 vintage has produced many fine wines, and overall, it is superior to 2004."

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate Issue #171, April 2007