Every time get through a horizontal of the wines of Pessac Léognan I come away thinking I need more of these complex wines in my cellar. Aside from the obvious stars of the appellation, Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, which come with a healthy price-tag, Château Haut-Bailly, Château Smith Haut-Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier and more recently Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, often make some of the best reds across all Bordeaux in any given year, and in the case of Château Smith Haut-Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier and the Haut-Brions, the best whites. But the value drinkers amongst you should also keep an eye on the likes of Château Bouscaut and Château Malartic-Lagravière [both in the notes below], but also the likes of Château La Louviere, Château Carbonnieux, Château Olivier, Château de Fieuzal and Chateau Latour-Martillac whose wines were not shown by the MW Institute last November. All these make super reds and whites and are worth stocking up on in most vintages. So how did the Pessac-Léognan appellation fair in 2021?

I don’t mean to stick the boot in to 2021. It’s always a bit glib to cast off an entire vintage, especially given the effort the vignerons make year in, year out. The real problem for the 2021 reds is that they sit amid a sea of much better Bordeaux at comparable prices. Unless you find 2021s priced well below better recent vintages [2022, 2019 & 2018], 2021 is not a terribly appealing purchase right now for the reds. It is also a heterogeneous vintage. As I said in my earlier post, quite a few of the red wines tasted at the MW Institute’s Annual Bordeaux tasting in November 2025 finished a bit short, often showing some rusticity to the tannins. While there are many genuine successes, there are also quite a few misfires. A number also seem to have retreated in bottle too, shutting down such that the fruit has dipped and the structure remains exposed, with noticeable acidity and tannin on the palate.

Last autumn I had the chance to do two horizontal tastings of Bordeaux 2021 and 2023. It was educational. On first release neither vintage had the rush out to buy feel of the exceptional 2022s. The 2021 vintage followed on from three very good vintages of greater quality [2018, 2019 and 2020] and the 2023s were definitely in the shadow of the widely acclaimed 2022s. So how are both vintages fairing now that the 2023s are finally in bottle and the 2021s have had a few years in the cellar? I found the 2023s generally much finer and more consistent than the 2021s. They have really grown during élevage and offer generally supple, delicious wine. The 2021s felt generally more disjointed, were less rounded, and had greater awkwardness to their tannin profiles. This was partly a result of where they are now in maturity, still only a few years in bottle but having lost that fresh flush of early youth, but also partly owing to the difficult growing season in 2021 that didn’t offer the best chance of full tannin ripeness. If you were going to opt for one or the other, it would definitely be the 2023s for me, but there are exceptions. That said for drinking now [given the bargain basement prices of mature Bordeaux at the moment] I’d be taking a keener look other vintages first. The 2019s, 2018s, 2016s and 2015s are all drinking well and even the 2010s and 2009s, now really on song, are often cheaper to buy today than they were fifteen years ago! Bordeaux is currently a bargain hunter’s dream!

There’s always a lot to enjoy in the best wines of the Médoc appellation. These usually provide good value for the regular Bordeaux drinker. As you would expect the 2024 vintage has rendered wines that are fresh, aromatic and sappy in the main. These should provide lively, satisfying Médoc in the short and medium term. This set of notes is limited to those châteaux that are members of the Grand Cercle. There were pretty consistent in quality. Obviously 2024 is not a big ripe year like 2018, 2019 or 2022, but there is real typicity here with the feel being more akin to 2012, 2014, 2017 or 2023. Amongst those tasted, Château Griviére, Château La Cardonne, Château Loudenne, Château Ramafort and Château Tour Seran all showed well. I’ve not had the chance to taste other leading Médoc properties such as Château Potensac, Château La Tour de By, Château Tour St Bonnet and Goulée. Hopefully I will fill these gaps soon.