Again the emphasis in St Emilion 2024 overall is freshness. The best exhibit vivid blue fruit characters and are appetising and moreish. There is heterogeneity though. If some are bracingly fresh and lively, others are solid and a bit unexciting. Others feel a bit green, and some are gentle, forward and probably early developing. Generally, the winemaking in the cellar feels sensitive enough, going with the material rather than against the grain. There are a few that feel a bit out of whack at present, either overly sappy or a bit drying. My experience is that these wines usually come good after élevage. Obviously 2024 doesn’t have the wow factor of the sunny, solar years here, like 2018 or 2022, the latter so seductive during primeurs. Still, it’s a journey, not a sprint and I’d be keen to see all these wines further down the track once they are bottled in twelve to eighteen months time as they will all probably pick up I expect.

I’m still in the process of requesting samples from Bordeaux but I wanted to publish some overall thoughts and picks on the sixty wines sent by the Grand Cercle. These are mostly wines from the right bank, including a number of top St Emilion Grand Cru Classés, but also a fair number of Crus Bourgeois from the left bank’s Médoc and Haut-Médoc appellations. The highlights have been amongst the wines from St Emilion, but the few Pomerol’s I’ve had also look fresh and enticing. There are also promising wines from Blaye, Castillon and Fronsac too. I’ve been generally impressed by the harmony and freshness of wines on the left bank, with some attractive and vigorous wines from the Médoc. Overall, these are wines lower in alcohol than the recent stellar vintages in 2018, 2019 and 2022, owing to the vagaries of the 2024 growing season which was often humid threatening rot, wet at the wrong times, and lacking in sun. Nevertheless, despite the unpromising conditions, attention in the vineyard, strict selection and wise choices in the cellar have enabled the best and most diligent properties to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat. Below are the immediate picks from members of the Grand Cercle.

Turning up to Château Valandraud is always a mouth-watering prospect. There are fewer wines now on tasting at the refurbished château than there used to be at the tiny cellars beside Jean Luc Thunevin’s home in St Emilion, but it’s still one to get the juices going. While focus is always on the hedonistic Valandraud grand vin itself, I always spend at lot of time looking at the entire range, which is where the value here lies. I’ve been visiting his cellars now for over a decade during primeurs and I’ve been consistently impressed by Domaine de Sabines in Lalande de Pomerol, Clos Badon in St Emilion and Le Clos du Beau Père in Pomerol. These wines do not disappoint in 2023, though there is a freshness and lightness of touch this year in keeping with the vintage. Jean Luc continues to consult for lots of properties on the right bank and I was particularly impressed with Château Mangot this year, alongside Château Sansonnet. What of Château Valandraud itself in 2023? It is inky and bold and definitely needs time.

What a difference a year makes. Bordeaux 2023 is stylistically light years apart from 2022. That generalisation is based in this case on tasting a hundred or so wines really centred on St Emilion in late April. Yes there is freshness, energy and drive to the nascent wines – they are perhaps more quintessential ‘Bordeaux’ in style than some recent vintages – but there is also heterogeneity. There is not the richness or mid palate weight of the 2022 vintage, or the evenness in quality, but the best wines from St Emilion and Bordeaux’s right bank show brightness and purity in 2023. The difference largely comes down to the weather. The 2023 growing season presented plenty of challenges across Bordeaux. A generally warm and humid year for much of the vegetative cycle, these conditions lead to considerable mildew pressure in the vineyards, challenges that required constant vigilance and affected some properties more than others. While high summer was warm it wasn’t hugely sunny. There were storms in June and there wasn’t the major water deficit that defines the exceptional years. That said there were some heat spikes and as the later growing season progressed the weather became drier, hotter and much sunnier and the vintage was harvested in generally dry, very good conditions. Overall though this is not a solar vintage like 2022 or 2018, and this might be something a relief for some consumers, with the wines perhaps truer to their terroirs and types.