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!

Way back in early September the Association de Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Emilion put on a tasting high up above London at Landing Forty Two in the remarkable Leadenhall Building. The views were impressive. So were many of the wines. Ostensibly it was an opportunity to taste the joyful 2018 vintage, but each producer also offered an additional, older vintage. This was fascinating. For me it also confirmed the superlative quality of the 2016 vintage in St Emilion, but also the quality of some of the rather unsung 2017s. In fact, there were quite a few properties to my mind that performed better in ’17 than they did in ’18 – and that was no mean feat given the challenges of the frost that so badly affected the former vintage. Given that some 45 different chateau were represented at the tasting, I’m dividing my report into two parts. This one contains notes and thoughts on some twenty-four properties [and forty-seven wines], starting with Château Barde-Haut and ending with Château Franc-Mayne [essentially half of them alphabetically].

In early October I had the opportunity to taste a set of wines spanning the last decade from the Médoc property Château Loudenne with General Manager Philippe de Poyferré. I’ve been particularly struck by the quality of the wines here in recent years at tastings in Bordeaux. This was a chance to look at the wines in detail, following significant investments in the estate over the last six years, after it came into new ownership in 2013. It’s a property I’m familiar with. A good friend of mine from university worked at Loudenne in the early 1990s. He shared bottles from the 1989 and 1990 vintages, which I remember showing plenty of extract and structure. More recently the Loudenne 2014 and 2015 vintages caught my eye during primeurs visits and this year again, with an exciting 2019.

A dozen wines from Lalande de Pomerol tasted earlier in the year certainly show how the appellation has captured the lush fruit qualities of the vintage. Once again, plenty of sweet, ripe and unctuously styled fruit is on display here. There was a little overextraction evident in some cases, but you would imagine that most of the wines will settle during elévage. The missing ingredient here is really acidity. 2018 will give a lot of pleasure for sure, but, as in St Emilion and Pomerol, the vintage lacks the appetizing vibrancy of 2015 and 2016 with their emphasis on freshness and texture. That said there is a lot to enjoy in these wines. Undoubtedly they will give plenty of pleasure at comparatively modest prices.