Château Haut-Bailly has produced beautiful wine in 2015. This historic property with enviable terroir close to Léognan has been on song for a number of years. Considerable investments by the owners across almost two decades are resulting in wines that are now regularly amongst the very best Bordeaux offers. Haut-Bailly’s 2015 blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, and, for the first time, a smidgen [4%] of Petit-Verdot, is top-drawer. It has tremendous concentration and depth but also approachability this year which contrasts with the wines usually brooding infancy. Recent acquisition Château La Pape is pretty and perfumed and has attractive texture. Both wines, Haut-Bailly especially, speak to the excitement that surrounds the 2015 vintage here in Pessac-Léognan.

Pomerol has produced some delicious wines in 2015. Alongside St Emilion, the various Côtes de Bordeaux, Pessac-Léognan and Margaux, Pomerol has succeeded wonderfully in this vintage. At the Union des Grand Crus tastings held by Château Beauregard many impressed, especially, Château La Bon Pasteur, Château La Cabanne, Château Clinet [very seductive], Château Gazin, Château Petit-Village, Château La Pointe and Château Beauregard itself. At the Pomerol Seduction tasting at Clos du Clocher, Château La Conseillante looked a beauty, while Château Rouget and Clos du Clocher looked pretty good. At the Grand Cercle tasting Château Feytit-Clinet was delicious and Château La Commanderie and Château Vieux Maillet impressed. Tasted separately Le Clos de Beau Père is also impressive. 

Château La Fleur de Boüard and Le Plus de La Fleur de Boüard are excellent this year, amongst the most impressive wines yet from this estate owned by the family that run Château Angélus. Domaine des Sabines is ripe and creamy with plenty of extract and matter. While there is a lot to sink your teeth into there is a glossy polish to the wine that’s a trademark of anything Jean-Luc Thunevin has a hand in. By contrast, Château de Bel-Air is a Lalande de Pomerol from the JP Moueix stable. It is light and fresh with the emphasis on sappy fruit and bright acidity in 2015.

Let’s not beat about the bush. St Emilion has had a glorious vintage in 2015. I think I’ve scored it even more highly than 2010 in many cases. It’s a different beast of course – in fact more of a beauty. There is a supple quality to the fruit, a seductive aspect. It makes so many of the wines delicious. If they don’t have the prodigious densities achieved in 2010, that’s not a bad thing. Many of these wines are caressing and voluptuous. There’s more apparent freshness too than in 2009. There are far fewer of the jammy over-ripe qualities that affected some wines here that year. I think I’m also detecting a perceptible shift in winemaking emphasis on the right bank too. This new paradigm hasn’t quite arrived everywhere, but I think we are starting to witness the positive results of changes in the approach and sophistication of vineyard management [and an increasing movement to organic methods], harvesting at better combined ripeness [not over-ripeness] and greater sensitivity in the cellar in terms of extraction. For me there is no doubt that these 2015 St Emilions are the most attractively styled primeur wines I’ve yet had from this varied and fascinating appellation.