Château Puygueraud is one of Bordeaux’s great wine values. It’s the family property of Nicolas Thienpont, the legendary winemaker and grower on Bordeaux’s right bank who has worked as a consultant to some of the best properties in the region. Nicolas took over the property in 1983 from his father Georges and has made the wine here with his son Cyrille since 2009. The property is situated in the Bordeaux Côtes de Francs appellation, on the same vein of rocky limestone which runs through the Côtes of St Emilion and the Castillon appellation. The wines have been good for some time. I’ve been tasting them consistently during the primeurs period over the past decade or so. This is one of my go-to value everyday drinking reds at around £16-17 [$25] retail. I’ve recently bought cases of Puygueraud en primeur and I thought it would be interesting to see how the 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages are getting on and compare at this point. Below are my notes and scores on these bottles.

While the Côtes de Bordeaux appellations are varied and diverse, the Grand Cercle tasting back in April showed many wines having good, bold colours in 2017. They displayed attractive fruit and purity. There was also a nice balance to many of the wines with fresh acidities. Despite the frost problems it seemed that many properties had succeeded in making good wines. Blaye, Bourg, Cadillac, Castillon and Francs usually offer some of the best value red wines in Bordeaux and given the generosity this year, even if yields have been reduced, there are many wines to consider. For me Château Alcée [Castillon], Château d’Aiguhile [Castillon], Château Réaut [Cadillac], Château Reynon [Cadillac] and Château Veyry [Castillon] especially stood out, but overall quality felt homogeneous.

Haut-Brion & La Mission Haut-Brion report promising wines in 2012

In Pessac-Léognan, estates seem pretty bullish about the quality of the 2012 harvest and resultant wines, red and white. The weather pattern here was similar to the Haut-Médoc – a wet and cool spring and a difficult early summer followed by a hot and dry August. Rain arrived here too in late September and again in mid October, but Pessac-Léognan’s best terroirs seem very happy indeed with quality. We will soon see for sure in the up-coming primeurs week tastings [7-11 April] exactly how good the nascent wines are but the talk is certainly very encouraging.

Frankly who cares? I’m being glib but this country makes such tasty and delicious wine from this variety in so many guises from the crowd pleasing to the simply stunning,  I could easily toss aside its Cabernet Sauvignon, Bonarda and Tempranillo or whatever, even its interesting Syrah and Sangiovese, so vivacious is Argentina’s Malbec. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world. It makes you wonder what on earth the French have been doing in Cahors all these years. Are they sure it’s Malbec they’ve got planted down there? Can Argentina’s South American rendition be related in any way to its rustic and tough Francophone brother?