All three of the top Moulis châteaux have performed well in 2019. Château Chasse Spleen is typically fresh and vibrant, always leaner than its rivals, but the extra richness of the vintage has supplied more middle than usual with nice texture on the palate. This will age well and needs three years or so to get set I reckon. Château Poujeaux has more evident depth and structure and feels well built for the long-haul, if currently rather tannic and grippy on the finish. You have five years at least to wait here. By contrast, unless it has shut down in the past six months, Château Maucaillou appears already attractive now, with plenty of red and black fruits on the palate [raspberry and plum tones]. You can decant this now and enjoy the lush fruit. The wines of Moulis continue to provide excellent value red Bordeaux. They also develop exceptionally well in bottle.

A tasting of wines from 2019 put on by the UGCB last November reinforced my impression of the fine quality of this vintage. I majored on the left bank, having covered the right bank more comprehensively during primeurs tastings back in 2020. Looking over my notes, the wines have certainly retreated into their shells since bottling. Many were quite backward and reticent, especially in Pauillac and St Julien. During primeurs, I felt like 2019 was a mythical blend of 2010 and 2009. They had the intensity of the former with the fruit and texture of the latter, with overall finer tannin and less extraction than back then. Right now I’m wondering if 2019 isn’t closer to a modern 2005, that is to say pretty serious, structured and long-term but with sweeter tannin texture than ‘05. Still, this is a generalisation and that comparison is not true in all cases by any means. Not all Pauillacs and St Juliens were backward for example and there were some especially lush wines in Margaux and the Haut-Médoc for instance. So it’s a complex picture. If you’ve tucked into 2019 [like me] there is certainly nothing to worry about, except that you might have to wait a little longer for the wines to open up than we first imagined. I’ll obviously follow up with more detailed posts by appellation, but in the meantime what were the overall highlights?

The debate between the relative merits of Bordeaux 2009 and 2010 continue. Although it didn’t quite generate a twitter spat, Jamie Goode’s recent suggestion on the platform that people sell their 2009s before the vintage is rumbled, did provoke a number of other tweeters to stick the boot into the vintage. ‘Mushy’, over-rated, lacking focus and fast maturing were just some of the less positive comments. Many, it seems, are now devotees of 2010 and wouldn’t go near 2009 with a barge pole. Personally, this seems a bit of an overcorrection. Of course, 2009 was always controversial, both for the easy pleasures it offered during primeurs and in bottle, but also for Robert Parker’s huge early praise as the best young Bordeaux vintage he had ever tasted. The subsequent hefty price hikes by the châteaux themselves, who cashed in during one of the longest primeurs campaigns, also alienated the market, especially after those who invested never saw much of an appreciation on their assets. It is worth noting that prices haven’t shifted up much in a decade and Lafite remains almost half its release price. So, as the wines enter their twelfth year, what should we really make of Bordeaux 2009 now?

Final post for now on the red wines of Bordeaux in 2019. Half a dozen wines tasted from the Médoc again showed a very strong vintage here. There is plenty of colour, vibrancy and extract in the wines for sure. I’ve already written on Goulée, which is very silky in 2019, but I was also impressed by Château Les Grands Chênes, Château Loudenne [a great effort], Château La Cardonne and Château Ramafort. In the Haut-Médoc appellation Château Lanessan, Château Malescasse and Château La Tour Carnet have all produced excellent wine. Amongst the other applications, in Moulis I was excited by both Château Poujeaux and Château Dutruch Grand Poujeaux [super refined]. I hope to augment these notes below with additional reviews of the wines of other properties over the coming months, most notably wines from the Margaux appellation.