Fronsac is usually a ‘go-to’ appellation for serious but good value Bordeaux. The finest properties here make excellent, ambitious wine, from exceptional limestone terroir. This over-achieving district doesn’t succeed as much in 2023 as it did 2022 [for me a knockout year for the wines of Fronsac] but there are still good wines to be had. I tasted nine wines blind in the Grand Cercle tastings back in late April. The picks? Château de la Dauphine has made savoury and attractive wine, alongside Château de la Rivière, Château La Huste and Château Fontenil. Château Moulin Haut Laroque also had lots of extract and texture. Château Villars and Château Dalem were good but lacked a bit of middle. They may well pick up depth during élevage. Château La Vieille Cure, usually up at the top of the pack, was not showing well on the day. That said, overall, there more consistency here amongst the wines than in the Castillon appellation in 2023.

It was great catching up with Matthieu Cuvelier at Clos Fourtet back in April. It’s now been twenty years since the Cuvelier family bought this stunning Premier Grand Cru Classé St Emilion property. It sits on exceptional terroir atop St Emilion’s limestone plateau just beside the town of St Emilion itself. It has gone from strength to strength under their management and recent vintages here have widely been seen as exceptional. It’s also been just over a decade since they purchased Grand Cru Classé, Château Côte de Baleau and sixteen years since they acquired Château Poujeaux, the jewel in the crown of left bank appellation Moulis. The Cuveliers have proved diligent custodians of these properties, fine tuning the approaches and getting the absolute best from these terroirs. These improvements have also been to the benefit of consumers as prices haven’t risen sharply in relation to quality. Clos Fourtet remains more reasonably priced than some other leading St Emilion properties and Châteaux Poujeaux remains one of Bordeaux’s great fine wine values. So how have all these properties faired in 2023?

“The source may be beautiful, but the true beauty lies in the accomplishment.” It’s the quote that starts Nicolas Thienpont’s 2023 vintage booklet. Often primeur guides are full of hot air but in this case his statement couldn’t be more deserved. Thienpont, who has been making wine on the right bank for forty years, knows the lie of the land here probably better than anyone and he has been giving expression to its varied terroirs with a gentle but guiding hand. He and his team [son Cyrille, winemaker David Suire and consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt] look after the winegrowing and winemaking at Château Larcis Ducasse and Château Pavie Macquin. Nicolas and Cyrille also run the over-achieving Thienpont family properties in Castillon [Château Alcée] and in Francs [Château Charmes Godard, Château Puygueraud and Château La Prade]. If there’s a common characteristic to all these wines, it is the quest for purity, a kind of generous purity, and that’s Thienpont’s touch. So, what’s the take here on the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux’s right bank and just how good are the wines?

The MW Institute had three Haut-Médoc wines on offer at their tasting. Château Belgrave delivers a lot of pleasure at a reasonable price. The 2018 seemed to have retreated a bit into its shell and needed a bit of coaxing in the glass. My experience with this wine is that it does age well in the medium term, so I’d give this another two or three years to settle, and it will improve over the next ten years. Château de Camensac has been another good buy for the past decade. This wine has experienced a renaissance over the past fifteen or so years and is worth seeking out, especially in riper vintages. This is a fresh and attractive 2018. Château Cantemerle, a little like Belgrave, has retreated somewhat. Again, Cantemerle offers good value and this 2018 has plenty of extract but currently lacks complexity. It may have opened up since it was tasted [these notes were taken at the end of 2022]. Elsewhere I’ve enjoyed other 2018 Haut-Medocs in the past year, including Château Beaumont and Château Sénéjac from my own purchases. I’ve not taken formal notes but Château Beaumont has lots of bright, juicy fruit tones and Château Sénéjac lots of flesh and texture in 2018.