Every time get through a horizontal of the wines of Pessac Léognan I come away thinking I need more of these complex wines in my cellar. Aside from the obvious stars of the appellation, Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, which come with a healthy price-tag, Château Haut-Bailly, Château Smith Haut-Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier and more recently Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, often make some of the best reds across all Bordeaux in any given year, and in the case of Château Smith Haut-Lafitte, Domaine de Chevalier and the Haut-Brions, the best whites. But the value drinkers amongst you should also keep an eye on the likes of Château Bouscaut and Château Malartic-Lagravière [both in the notes below], but also the likes of Château La Louviere, Château Carbonnieux, Château Olivier, Château de Fieuzal and Chateau Latour-Martillac whose wines were not shown by the MW Institute last November. All these make super reds and whites and are worth stocking up on in most vintages. So how did the Pessac-Léognan appellation fair in 2021?

Amongst the star wines from Pessac Léognan on show at the MW Institute last autumn, the quality of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion should come as no surprise. Both were still pretty backward and need another decade to open up but there was fantastic depth and weight to both. La Mission was fractionally more open, with mouth-watering fruit and freshness. It was forthcoming on the nose with plenty of blackcurrant fruit, plums and spices. Haut-Brion had a significant frame and density but this remains pretty closed. Château Haut-Bailly tasted in between these two really impressed. This is qualitatively almost equal to the two Pessac siblings in this vintage. It has terrific freshness and life but plenty of depth. Give it time in a decanter and you can enjoy this already, but it has two or three decades ahead of it. Across the Pessac-Léognan lineup it was Château Smith Haut Lafitte that stole the show on the day. This property shows great consistency, year in, year out. The 2019 here is super impressive. Plush blackcurrants and plums dominate a sumptuous aromatic profile but the palate maintains freshness alongside layers of fruit and the ripest of tannins. It’s magnificent.

There are lots of great wines in Pessac-Léognan in the 2016 vintage. You’d expect superlative efforts from the likes of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion. But there are also magnificent wines from the appellation’s defacto first growths Château Haut-Bailly and Château Smith Haut Lafitte. Brilliant, yet contrasting red wines have been made here. Fractionally outside this club, but only fractionally, is Domaine de Chevalier. Year in, year out this is one of the highest quality, dependable but won’t [entirely] ‘break-the-bank’ reds in all of Bordeaux. Fine wines have also been made at Château Bouscaut, Château Fieuzal, Château Malartic Lagravière. Château Latour Martillac is drinking well, already offering textbook earthy Graves. That said, overall, at the top level these are still wines that need another two or three years in bottle to get really into gear. In some senses a few have crept into their shells since earlier tastings. These will improve further in complexity over the next decade and expect them to last well into the middle of the century.

Château Haut-Bailly has some of the most enviable terroir in Bordeaux. Unfortunately even this was insufficient to spare the property from the devasting frosts of April 27 and 28, 2017. These frosts did damage to the lower plots on the property, but the old vine parcels were spared. Subsequently even flowering and an exceptionally dry summer, saved the day. In 2017 Château Haut-Bailly has produced red wines that have depth and freshness. The vintage is a little reminiscent of 2008 and 2014 but with softer tannins and more gentle extraction.