Prime Primeur

The 2015 Bordeaux vintage is extraordinary— and you’re going to want to get your hands on some en primeur, writes James Suckling

n exciting year for Bordeaux, 2015 produced wines with exuberant fruit character and plenty of tannin backbone. Intermittent rain from August to October caused complications, particularly for wineries north of Margaux, yet most of the top names made outstanding wines due to meticulous viticulture and judicious winemaking.

The vintage isn’t homogenous. Some estates made better wines than in 2009 or 2010, others similar to the 1996 or 2004 vintages. Some respected names in Médoc made poorer wines than in 2014, yet small Right Bank estates made wines as good as or better than their most highly regarded. Producers had to extract less during fermentation and maceration, and use less new wood in general. It was all about making wines with finesse and length—real Bordeaux. Let’s see how the wines improve in barrel over the next year or so.

Overall, the merlot-based wines are of amazing quality and rank among the highlights of my tastings of about 750 wines during three weeks in Bordeaux. The best appellations are Pomerol and St-Émilion, although PessacLéognan and Margaux follow closely. Lots of smaller appellations also excelled, including Lalande-de-Pomerol and Fronsac. Top châteaux in the Médoc made high-quality wines despite problems with rain. Wineries north of Margaux had to contend with a lot more rain.

I can’t think of another Bordeaux vintage that produced wines in the barrel like this in my 33-vintage career as a wine critic. It’s not in the same league as such great recent years as 2010 or 2009, or even 2005—because in those vintages, it was an across-the-board success and the grape-growing season was great everywhere in Bordeaux. But the 2015 is another outstanding vintage. It’s one I am going to buy myself. So many exciting wines were made—red, dry white, and sweet. Some wines are the estates’ best ever.

There’s something in the best wines that remind me of the greats of the 1980s (such as 1982 or 1989) that I tasted from the barrel as a young wine critic. They have a neoclassical style, not emphasising massive concentration or wood, but length, balance, and strength.

Although I didn’t taste them from the barrel, the wines on the Right Bank could turn out to be like the excellent 1971, but even better. Wines such as Pétrus, Lafleur, and Cheval Blanc from this vintage are classics and still fantastic to drink. That year was marked by hot weather and rain before the vintage—clearly a great one for the Right Bank. The 1998 Right Bank vintage is another that comes to mind, since rain also affected quality. However, the 2015s are not as traditional or as tannic in style, and the Left Bank produced better wine in 2015.

I like the idea of a new 1995 for the Right Bank, Pessac-Léognan, and Margaux, and 1996 for the Médoc north of Margaux. The latter year was rain-affected and outstanding wines were only made in the northern Médoc, while the former saw excellent wines made in Bordeaux, particularly on the Right Bank.

The wines of 2015 are wonderful in so many ways. I like the fact they show their terroirs and are not excessively marked by the ripeness of the year. Most producers say their alcohol levels are under those of Bordeaux’s last top vintage, 2010, yet the tannins are abundant and ripe, and acidities are average. One producer in Pomerol describes the 2015s as “warm inside and cold outside.”

The 2015s highlight an axiom offered by the late winemaker Émile Peynaud when I started tasting from the barrel in Bordeaux in 1983; he said great wines were great straight from the barrel. Tasting the 2015s, I can say it was an outstanding year with charisma—one that will always be intriguing to have in my cellar.