Category Archives: Bordeaux 2018

Bordeaux 2018 en primeur buying guide

April 30 2019

I do think 2018 is a Bordeaux vintage to consider buying into – given the right wines at the right price. Here are my ‘en primeur’ scores out of 100 for most of the leading wines, with scores close to 90 or above, from the top appellations. The rating for 2018 is on the left, 2016 on the right. Although the vintages are not the same in style, the wines are often not far apart, quality-wise, and the châteaux will price their new 2018 wines with 2016 in mind.

The first EP price is the opening en primeur price of the wine in the UK in May or June 2017, and the ‘£ now’ is the average list price you’d find, according to Liv-ex. Prices are per case of 12 ‘in bond’ (excl duty and VAT).

These tables are a simple guide to relative values: if my score for the 2018 is the same or higher than the 2016, and the price is the same or cheaper, then it’s worth a look. (And vice versa.) You can compare my 2018 ratings with other critics’ scores on the Livex page here.

The 2016s were bottled in 2018 and are physically available. Many have a long life ahead of them but some are already approachable, such is the purity and freshness of the fruit, and silkiness of the tannins.

In general, the 2018s will require patience, despite the opulence and hedonistic appeal of the wines. I’d reckon on drinking windows of 2028-2043 (10-25+ years) and beyond for many of the top estates.

Some personal favourites in their class in 2018, and for which we hope pricing is reasonable, are in highlighted in bold/italics.

At the foot, there’s also 50+ ‘Bordeaux on a budget’ 2018 reds en primeur. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2018 en primeur and vintage report

2018 is an exceptional vintage for Bordeaux. One of the most challenging starts to the growing season in living memory was followed by three glorious months, with record levels of sunshine, precious little rain and an unflustered harvest, resulting in red wines – at the top end – of extraordinary depth, opulence and intensity. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2018 yields – a devilish year

March 11 2019

This article has also been published on JancisRobinson.com and Liv-ex.

As a backdrop to the en primeur tastings that take place at the end of March and the first week of April, here’s a look at the production figures and a few statistics for the 2018 vintage in Bordeaux. More than that, it’s a fairly in-depth breakdown of how the different appellations contribute to the enormous amount of wine that’s made here, and how recent vintages compare.

On the face of it, a year that produced the same amount of wine as the average of the previous 10 years wouldn’t appear to warrant a great deal of scrutiny: the overall figure suggests it’s just an average year, volume wise. As with any vintage, however, the devil’s in the detail and none more so than with Bordeaux 2018, when the equivalent of 666 million bottles were made. (Sorry.) And while it was a glorious year for some growers, and this will be borne out by the tastings, for others the size of their crop was indeed the stuff of nightmares.

Ten highlights of Bordeaux 2018 production

  • Bordeaux produced a fraction under 500 million litres in 2018, the equivalent of 666 million bottles. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2018 weather and harvest report

October 31 2018

This report was also published on JancisRobinson.com and on Liv-ex.

Bordeaux 2018 will be remembered as an exceptional year, with no shortage of outstanding wines from this extraordinary vintage. The weather too has been exceptional, with a glorious summer extending long into the September and early October harvest, but the vintage had begun with a bizarrely challenging first half of the growing season. It has ended up, not for the first time, as a year of mixed fortunes.

I’ll try to explain the impact of the weather on yields and quality using – as ever in these vintage reports – a few graphs and statistics.

A dozen highlights of the out-of-the-ordinary 2018 vintage

  • A wet winter, followed by a seriously soggy spring.
  • The threat of mildew, from spring onwards, was the strongest for decades.
  • Hailstorms in May and July caused damage in some unlucky areas.
  • The flowering in May and June was largely successful.
  • A glorious summer, preceded by just enough rain in late June and early July.
  • To have three complete months of sunny, dry weather from early July through to early October is rare.
  • Optimal harvest conditions, stress free, with no risk of rot.
  • A vintage of great potential, with outstanding reds and some very good whites.
  • Balance will be key as alcohol levels are generally quite high.
  • The fourth very good to excellent vintage in a row for 75% of the leading châteaux.
  • Plentiful yields for most growers but low for those hit by mildew or hail.
  • Overall Bordeaux volumes, at a guess, are close to the 10-year average.

The growing season

Here then is the story of the vintage, using daily statistics that I’ve compiled from six different weather stations around Bordeaux.

The amount of rain can differ considerably from one area to another, and even from one commune to another, but this gives a pretty good impression of how the growing season panned out. For a comparison of 2018 with the last two vintages – and they are quite different – see the appendix below.

‘A game of two halves’

At the end of July – the month in which France won the football World Cup – I wrote that Bordeaux 2018 was ‘a game of two halves’. I have to admit I was taking a punt on the weather staying fine for August and September and even, as it happened, for early October, yet it’s extraordinary how the weather stayed so sunny and dry after such a wet start.

The stark contrast in the amount of rain for the period from March to June, compared to July, August and September, and how this compares to other vintages, can also be seen in this grid showing rainfall each month over the last ten vintages.

Keep reading

Bordeaux 2018 – a game of two halves

July 30 2018

This post also appears on JancisRobinson.com and on Liv-ex, the fine wine market website.

I’ll keep the football analogies to a minimum but the end of the month in which France won the World Cup seems an appropriate moment to reflect on the pluses and minuses of the season so far. For wine growers, or viticulteurs, the business end of the season will soon be upon us.

Following on from a wet winter and a thoroughly damp spring, the start of the summer has been dry and hot. In fact, of the last 44 days, 22 have seen temperatures over 30°C around Bordeaux, with another 14 days over 28°C. July itself has been the third hottest in France since 1947, still behind 2006 and 1983 but knocking 2015 into fourth spot. Keep reading

Hail in Bordeaux 2018 and the bigger picture

May 31 2018

Many thanks for all the concerned messages. We’re fine thanks, as on this occasion the hailstorms passed us by. To the north of us, primarily in Bourg and Blaye, and the southern Haut-Médoc, they were not so lucky, and we send our best wishes to our fellow viticulteurs whose vineyards have been damaged.

The hailstorm struck on Saturday morning, 26 May, and we had an early warning from friends in the city of Bordeaux with texts and tweets, mostly accompanied by images and videos of hailstones and flooded streets. The hailstorm then moved up towards the Gironde estuary, damaging vines on the left bank around Macau and at the southern end of the Haut-Médoc, before causing huge damage to vineyards on the other side of the river in the picturesque, hilly areas of Bourg and Blaye. (Closer to home, the picture above of her neighbour’s vines is from Dawn Jones-Cooper of Château de Monfaucon near Genissac on the Dordogne river, less than 10 miles from us.) The storm then shifted north to Cognac. Keep reading

Same vines in late May, different years

May 25 2018

Ten days after a hailstorm at Ch Bauduc on 23 May 2009.

Every year on the 23rd May, I take a photo of the Merlot vines outside the château and each picture tells a story. From the hailstorm in May in 2009, to the early harvest in 2011 and 2017, the grotty start to the growing season in 2013 and the normal, good years like 2016. Here are some of those photos.

The earliest growing season – a burst out of the blocks, 23 May 2011.

Keep reading