There’s always a lot to enjoy in the best wines of the Médoc appellation. These usually provide good value for the regular Bordeaux drinker. As you would expect the 2024 vintage has rendered wines that are fresh, aromatic and sappy in the main. These should provide lively, satisfying Médoc in the short and medium term. This set of notes is limited to those châteaux that are members of the Grand Cercle. There were pretty consistent in quality. Obviously 2024 is not a big ripe year like 2018, 2019 or 2022, but there is real typicity here with the feel being more akin to 2012, 2014, 2017 or 2023. Amongst those tasted, Château Griviére, Château La Cardonne, Château Loudenne, Château Ramafort and Château Tour Seran all showed well. I’ve not had the chance to taste other leading Médoc properties such as Château Potensac, Château La Tour de By, Château Tour St Bonnet and Goulée. Hopefully I will fill these gaps soon.

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.

I was fortunate enough to have bought a reasonable spread of Bordeaux en primeur in 2005. At the time of purchase in 2006 there was a lot of hype surrounding the vintage. At that stage it was being compared to legendary vintages, like 1961. In many ways, it had been the first vintage since 2000 to really shout about in Bordeaux. The 2003 had its admirers of course, Parker amongst them, and that heatwave year made some thrilling wines – but it was also very inconsistent. I didn’t get the chance to taste the 2005s during primeurs, but those that did told me that, whilst it was evidently very promising, it was also somewhat tricky to judge with all the fruit, tannin, oak and acidity. Over the intervening years, I wonder if the vintage has lost some of its lustre, certainly relative to 2009 & 2010? There is an interesting piece from Jancis Robinson here worth a read from a few years back. So now that the vintage is sweet sixteen, just how are some of the wines faring?

Final blog post for the moment on the reds of Bordeaux in 2020. I’ve grouped together notes taken on wines from the Médoc and Haut-Médoc in this post, as well as some specific communes like Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St Julien, Pauillac and St Estèphe. All of these are based on samples sent by the Grand Cercle. I’ve yet to taste members of the Union des Grand Crus and there are a number of properties that I usually get to taste which I didn’t manage to organise this year. I hope to update these omissions soon. From what I have tasted the reds are fresh in the Médoc in 2020, although there is not the richness of 2019 or 2018 for me. In some there is a certain austerity and angularity. Wines tasted from the Haut-Médoc have good depth and colour, with freshness and zap, but again some can feel a little angular. A handful of wines tasted from St Estèphe look promising, with good colours and nice textures, and there were some nicely perfumed, fresh wines from Margaux. The few bottles I tasted from St Julien and Pauillac showed finesse, but were not quite up with the quality and concentration of the previous two vintages. Overall my tastings in these communes were not as comprehensive as those on the right bank this year. If you want detailed reports on the left bank wines I’d defer to others whose writing on Bordeaux I admire [Jane Anson, James Lawther, Chris Kissack, Neal Martin & Jeb Dunnuck all cover Bordeaux extremely well]. Nevertheless, I hope you find the notes on the following 24 wines useful.