The Nicolas Thienpont range looks excellent in 2020. The jewels in the line up here are Château Pavie Macquin and Château Larcis Ducasse, two super impressive St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé. Stylistically these are always chalk and cheese. The former is usually super powerful and bold, the latter is as pure and beautiful as St Emilion gets. The emphasis of Nicolas Thienpont and his son Cyrille, along with winemaking colleague David Suire, is always on the purity of expression of the terroir and not on turbocharged hijinks in the cellar. It is a shame that this team are no longer involved with making Château Beauséjour [HDL], but that’s another story. In the Côtes de Francs, the well-known Château Puygueraud looks very good and their Castillon, Château Alcée, is knockout [as are a number of wines in this appellation in 2020].

Another set of brilliant wines have been made in 2019 at the properties that Nicolas Thienpont manages in St Emilion. Château Larcis Ducasse, Château Pavie Macquin and Château Beauséjour [héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse] are always flagship estates for me in terms of purity and refinement. Tasting them is never less than a joy. 2019 marks the fifth vintage in a row that these properties are successful. Great wines have been made 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (and 2014 was no embarrassment either). The 2019s are most reminiscent of the 2016s in many respects. Yet whilst they do have something of the fabulous texture of that vintage, they carry their power more noticeably, more in the way that 2010 did. 2019 is evidently a brilliant vintage at all these properties. While they rival 2016, qualitatively there are differences. As David Suire put it, “If the 2016 was a vintage that came down from the sky and the stars, 2019 is a vintage that has come up from the earth.” This evident classic minerality also makes 2019 stand in contrast to the exuberant joys of the 2018s here too.

I’ve been nursing a dilemma these past few months. Shouldn’t I really be keeping quiet about Château Laroque? This impressive St Emilion property, situated on some of the highest limestone terroir of the appellation, has been run since 2015 by David Suire, the talented winemaker who, with Nicolas Thienpont, crafts the beautiful Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Beauséjour. For me, Château Laroque 2018 was one of the best buys on the Right Bank I tasted this year. The quality was knockout for the price. I nabbed a couple of cases for my own cellar. Just don’t tell anyone. If your experience is anything like mine, increasingly I’m having trouble affording my favourite Bordeaux. Expect Laroque’s prices to rise over the next few years, so if you can find any remaining 2018, I’d nab it quick! If not the 2016 looks good too.

The wines of Nicolas Thienpont are always amongst the purest and most impressive I taste each year in Bordeaux. This purity comes across in their own wines – the seriously good value Château Puygueraud and Château La Prade in Francs and Château Alcée in Castillon. But it is his tending to the wines and winegrowing of the St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classés, Château Larcis Ducasse, Château Pavie Macquin and Château Beauséjour [Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse], with his son Cyrille Thienpont and winemaker David Suire that perhaps, understandably, commands the most attention. The wines here have been wonderfully impressive in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 trio of vintages in St Emilion. In 2018, they are knockout.