Amongst the star wines from Pessac Léognan on show at the MW Institute last autumn, the quality of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion should come as no surprise. Both were still pretty backward and need another decade to open up but there was fantastic depth and weight to both. La Mission was fractionally more open, with mouth-watering fruit and freshness. It was forthcoming on the nose with plenty of blackcurrant fruit, plums and spices. Haut-Brion had a significant frame and density but this remains pretty closed. Château Haut-Bailly tasted in between these two really impressed. This is qualitatively almost equal to the two Pessac siblings in this vintage. It has terrific freshness and life but plenty of depth. Give it time in a decanter and you can enjoy this already, but it has two or three decades ahead of it. Across the Pessac-Léognan lineup it was Château Smith Haut Lafitte that stole the show on the day. This property shows great consistency, year in, year out. The 2019 here is super impressive. Plush blackcurrants and plums dominate a sumptuous aromatic profile but the palate maintains freshness alongside layers of fruit and the ripest of tannins. It’s magnificent.

Bordeaux 2019, released in the height of the pandemic in June 2020, was perhaps the last sensibly priced vintage from the region. The quality also seemed great. Early on for me it had the poise of the 2016 combined with the richness and flamboyance of the 2009 with greater freshness. There were scores of impressive wines across all appellations, red and white [and sweet]. With the price hikes here with the exceptional 2022s, the 2019 vintage still appears pretty good value. What’s more the wines are drinking well. In October 2023 the MW Institute put on its annual tasting of ninety top wines and very few seem to have shut down [which isn’t the case with 2018s which have crept into their shells]. The quality too has held up in bottle and the vintage seems to have genuinely delivered on its primeurs promise. So, all in all, what’s not to like about this vintage?

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.

There was lots of extract and sweet ripe fruit on display from the nine wines from Pessac-Léognan in 2018 at the MW Institute tasting in late 2022. A few felt a little lacking acidity. This was definitely not the case for Château La Mission Haut-Brion, which even eclipsed the thrilling wine made at sibling Château Haut Brion. Both are outstanding. I was very impressed with a brilliant Domaine de Chevalier and a typically flamboyant Château Pape Clément. Château Malartic Lagravière balanced the ripeness with the freshness and felt complete. The usually knock out Château Smith Haut Lafitte seemed to lack a bit of zip on the end, though it was decadently lush and layered on the palate. Château de Fieuzal felt a somewhat stewed and lacking freshness, while Château Bouscaut was ripe and caressing. Château Oliver was sturdy with a tannic chunky finish.