2019 is a wonderful vintage in Pauillac. Whilst Château Latour, Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Grand Puy Lacoste were missing from the MW Institutes line-up, the range included most of the other top properties. Château Lafite Rothschild was sublime. It had terrific purity, precise blackcurrant fruit profiles and wonderful balance. This quality was also mirrored in two epic wines from the Pichons. If Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande fractionally topped Château Pichon Baron in early primeurs tastings, then maybe Baron is now fractionally head by a whisker, but that is more to do with how they are currently drinking. Both are show-stoppers, and both must surely rank amongst the very top wines of the vintage. Château Lynch-Bages is full-throttle but currently a lot rawer and needs another three of four years [it will age well for decades]. Château Duhart Milon has made classic Pauillac along with Château Batailley, and Château Clerc-Milon looks to be one of the best wines here in the last decade. It has great purity and balance.

We’re off! The samples are coming in. The Zoom chats are being had. The wines are being released thick and fast. Shortly I’ll be reporting my on first thoughts on Bordeaux 2019. Do watch this space! The hype says it’s another great vintage, less baroque than 2018 perhaps, more a foil like 2010 was to 2009, or 1990 was to 1989. In some cases properties believe the vintage is better than 2018. It certainly continues a pattern of talented twins in the past decade, which most recently featured 2015 and 2016. We seem to be set sail on a sea of fine vintages of Bordeaux these days. Climate change, modern winemaking and viticultural developments are all playing their part, genuinely raising the bar in this blessed wine region, in every fine vintage.  But climate is more extreme too. There is more frequent drought, reversals of season, devastating frosts or hail. Things are getting Biblical the world over, as we wake up to the realities of global warming. Then in swings COVID-19, devastating us with loss of life and economic paralysis. With primeurs tastings cancelled this year in Bordeaux, my coverage will be necessarily more episodic than usual. Many properties are happy to send samples, some not. I have good tasting set up at home, but obviously it’s a poorer facsimile than darting about Bordeaux and tasting in situ, especially given the fragility of infant wine.

In 2016 Pauillac has had the most collectively exciting vintage vintage since 2010. The texture of the tannin is remarkable and the balance is incredibly appealing. I’d go as far to say that, on the basis of the wines I tasted, this is my favourite vintage here since 2009. It has some of the qualities of 2005 and 2000 but the tannin feels more supple than both of those vintages to me [and tannin management has come a long way in the last ten to fifteen vintages]. My only caveat is that, owing to a shortage of time I missed out on tasting some old favourites including Château Batailley, Château Haut-Batailley, Château Lynch Bages, Château Pichon Longueville and Château Pichon Lalande. I hope to taste these wines in the not too distant future and will update this post when I do. In the meantime, here are my notes on fifteen wines from Pauillac in 2016. It includes notes on  all the first growths and Château Pontet Canet.

Eric Kohler has supervised an impressive set of wines at Château Lafite-Rothschild in 2016. The great qualities of the 2016 vintage are writ large in the wines. The aromatics are beguiling [wonderful freshness and vibrancy] and the tannins succulent and textured. There is also a delicacy and digestibility to the wines which is attractive. Carruades de Lafite has plenty of vibrant, bouncy fruit. It has real beauty. Château Duhart-Milon is more reserved but with multiple layers and depth. Château Lafite-Rothschild looks to be best of recent years. It is more impressive at this stage than the successful 2014 here. In fact there are echoes of the truly great Lafites in 2009 and 2010, albeit that 2016 appears to be fractionally lighter in body than those two vintages.