A dozen red wines from the Graves appellation in 2014 showed fresh, vibrant flavours. The picks for me were Château de Chantegrive, Château Ferrande and Château Rahoul. Solid wines have also been made at Château de Cerons, Grand Enclos du Château Cérons, Château Crabitey and Château Haura. These wines are not overly concentrated, but display vigour and some style, and are usually well priced.

Now the dust has settled on primeurs week my verdict would be that 2014 Bordeaux is a good to very good vintage for red wines, a vintage which favours the Left Bank especially, but there are also many successes on the Right Bank too. Without doubt it is the best and most consistent vintage since 2010, though it is not up to the quality of that vintage nor its predecessor 2009, with a couple of possible exceptions. 2014 is another excellent vintage for the dry white wines of Bordeaux and there are a number of stylish sweet wines from Sauternes and Barsac. Given the overall quality of the reds, 2014 is definitely a vintage worthy of purchasing en primeur, assuming the price is right. Early indications are that prices will remain stable or increase a little from 2013 for the top estates [an altogether inferior vintage for the reds]. Still given exchange rates, this will still be a reduction of between 10-20% if you are a GBP or USD customer – so if that’s your currency 2014 is potentially interesting. The litmus test usually is that chateaux must release cheaper than any physically available vintage otherwise an en primeur purchase makes no financial sense. So, even if by default, 2014 may be the first vintage since 2008 to offer decent prospects for the consumer. Fingers crossed!

Of course it is far too soon to make an assessment of the 2014 vintage in Bordeaux (the critical month is August), but it is interesting to look at the weather conditions so far to see how they may affect the final outcome. For some unfortunate growers in the northern Médoc, we know already that they will have vastly reduced crops because of the hail storm that struck on Whit Sunday (8 June). In four or five villages to the east of Lesparre-Médoc, nearly 50% of the vineyard was affected and some growers are reporting up to 100% loss. This was the critical flowering period, and hail is very effective at stripping the vines of their leaves. No leaves means no photosynthesis and therefore no crop. Fortunately for other producers, hail is usually very localised. Outside the northern Médoc, others are more upbeat about climatic conditions so far.

Pessac-Léognan’s reds better than expected

While this vintage here can’t compare to the wonders produced in 2009 and 2010, the reds are better than expected given the tricky vintage. The wines displayed plenty of sap and bite at last week’s UGCB tastings but the fruit is there. There hadn’t been much doubt about the quality of the whites though from the very start. During the primeurs tastings Pessac-Léognan’s white wines showed plenty of fruit and style and none of these characters have been lost now that they are in bottle. Some are already delicious if you like wines with zest and life but many will benefit from a few years in bottle to broaden further.