Top 2010 Haut-Médoc continue to develop successfully if the four crus classés shown at the MW Institute last November are anything to go by. Château Cantemerle 2010 seems equal in quality, if not quite in style, to the prodigious 2009 here. There is more structure and tension in the wine in this vintage but it is another brilliant effort. The same too goes for Château La Lagune. Clearly it has depth, structure and plenty of matter but is currently closed. Château de Camensac has turned in a vibrantly styled wine with its usual emphasis on vigour and freshness. Château Belgrave looks especially successful. It has produced a pure, plump and very complete Haut-Médoc which must go down as one of the finest wines this property has yet produced.

Now they are in bottle 2012 Haut-Médoc’s look to be light to medium weight wines with some vigour and style. Overall the vintage feels rounder and more harmonious than both 2013 and 2011, though there is not the power here of 2010 or the extraordinary succulence of 2009. Still many are drinking nicely already and should prove sufficiently attractive and rewarding in the short to medium term. The standouts will come as no surprise – Château Cantemerle, Château Citran [a gutsy effort], Château La Lagune and Château La Tour Carnet were the most complete for me.

For me the wines of the Haut-Médoc performed much better than  I feared during primeurs 2013. Expecting the worst, I was generally encouraged and came away feeling that many had made the best of the poor hand the growing season had dealt them. There were casualties though. Château Malescasse and Château La Lagune will not release 2013s. Nevertheless Château Cantemerle [as ever], Château Belle-Vue and Château La Tour Carnet have produced good wines. Château Cissac, Château Belgrave, Château de Camensac and Château Larose-Trintaudon were also encouraging and should offer good value.

Generally the further up the Haut-Médoc you go, the increasingly exciting things get in 2009. This excitement perhaps reaches its apogee in St Julien, Pauillac and St Estèphe. The four Haut-Médoc properties shown at the MW Institute tasting last November come from very different ends of the left bank and perhaps contradict this pattern slightly. Château La Lagune and Château Cantemerle border the Margaux appellation in the south, while Château Belgrave and Château de Camensac are further north and neighbour St Julien inland. All look extremely good in 2009 but Cantermerle and La Lagune are utterly brilliant.