Lalande de Pomerol is usually a source of good wine. The appellation produces complex and nicely structured reds, if less fleshy than neighbour Pomerol. The wines showed promise here in 2012 but things are much more disjointed and difficult to judge in 2013. Overall they were a pretty closed and generally hard bunch when tasted blind at the Cercle Rive Droite. Others tasted separately showed better later in the week of tastings. The picks for me are Domaine des Sabines, La Fleur de Boüard, Château Tournefeuille and Château Les Vieux Ormes. Le Plus de La Fleur de Boüard, made from a small old vine plot, is very impressive indeed for the vintage, though it is made in tiny quantities.

A dozen or so wines tasted from Canon-Fronsac and Fronsac were generally a rather lean bunch last month. There’s structure here and serious intent in some but not a huge amount of joy. The picks would have to be from Fronsac and include Château Les Trois Croix, Château Fontenil, Château de Carlmagnus and Château Dalem. Château La Vieille Cure is chewy and needs to settle while Château de La Dauphine, often excellent, has made something elegant, if rather light.

Working through 110 wines shown blind by Le Cercle Rive Droite on the last Sunday in March, D:Ream’s ‘Things can only get better’ was ringing in my mind. Slowly they did, but only slowly. There is no doubt that 2013 is the trickiest Bordeaux vintage since 1997 for the reds and the smaller producers in the Côtes de Bordeaux are amongst those who have probably struggled the most.

Well after tasting hundreds of wines across all of Bordeaux’s major appellations last week, generally 2013 faired a bit better than expected. That may not seem much of an achievement given how subterranean expectations were at the outset. Truly miserable weather during flowering, and rain and humidity at the end of the growing season, meant it was a battle between rot and ripeness for almost all growers regardless of appellation. These conditions only benefited Bordeaux’s sweet wine producers in Sauternes and Barsac, who qualitatively have produced the best wines of the vintage.