In June’s auctions, very mature Bordeaux were the stars of the show, while wines from Les Jardins Esmeraldins remained highly sought after.
There’s no crisis when it comes to very mature Bordeaux
While the Bordeaux wine market is not doing too well as a whole, this is not the case on the secondary market with regard to very mature vintages. Indeed, these wines with legendary ageing potential appreciate in value over the long term, more so than recent vintages whose production sizes do not create much rarity. Many of these wines stand out at auction when they are 30 years old or more, especially when it comes to vintages of the century like 1961. For example, a bottle of 1961 Château Haut-Brion was auction for € 3,005 (+162%) on 05 June 2025. Similarly, a bottle of 1961 Château Mouton-Rothschild reached €878 (+29%) and a bottle of Château Lynch Bages from this vintage of the century sold for €551 (+71%).
Other very mature vintage also made a mark! A bottle of 1948 Château Mouton-Rothschild , for example, reached €3,005 (stable), while a bottle from 1953 sold for €2,754 (+69%). A bottle of 1959 Château Haut-Brion was auction for €2,047 (+157%). As for sweet wines, a bottle of 1955 Yquem went under the hammer for € 1,102 (+29 %).
Jardins Esmeraldins: Prices increase with rarity
Les Jardins Esmeraldins, an Anjou estate located at Coutures and spread across five hectares of vines, has now disappeared (bought in 2018 by a Japanese investor and renamed Les Jardins de la Martinière). Its first vintage dates was in 1999 and these bottles have no gone down in wine world legends. Despite being little known for years, the estate became incredibly successful, to the point that its bottles exceed €1,000 at auction. In 2016, Xavier Caillard, the winemaker, decided to stop production and it remained untouched until it was bought in 2018 by a Japanese family company, Nicifutso Shoji, specialised in importing high-end French products. The oenologist Kaya Tsutsui, the nephew of Nicifutso Shoji’s leader, works in the vineyard with Adrien Vaillant, formerly of Domaine les Grandes Vignes. They were advised by another great Japanese winemaker, Hirotake Ooka in the past, who created Domaine de la Grande Colline in the Rhone.
Even if Les Jardins de la Martinière’s wines are actively sought after, it is nothing in comparison with vintages produced by Xavier Caillard under the guide of Les Jardins Esmeraldins, which have become increasingly collectible in recent years. For example, its Chenin Blanc Génèse went under the hammer for € 1,089 (+16 %) on 4 June.
