2018 REVISITED: BORDEAUX IN BOTTLE
After tasting nearly 600 recently bottled Bordeaux wines from the 2018 vintage, Jane Anson finds it to be a highly successful vintage for the reds on both banks, with notable high points, particularly in Pauillac, Margaux and St-Emilion. Here she makes a selection of 50 of her top-scoring reds, in terms of both quality and value
As with the en primeur tastings earlier in the year, the Bordeaux 2018 in-bottle assessment coincided with a lockdown in France, during which travelling became complicated. But in the end, between visits to châteaux and home deliveries, I tasted more or less double the number of wines compared to last year’s in-bottle report: close to 600 labels in total. A particularly useful exercise with 2018, where the atypical conditions that were highlighted in our en primeur report ( Decanter June 2019 issue) have resulted in some concerns over ageing.
This is still a highly successful vintage for red Bordeaux, but there are hesitations over certain wines, and I am revising down my overall rating for the vintage to 4, not 4.5, out of 5 for the reds (although unchanged at 4.5 for the Right Bank in the regional breakdowns: see below).
‘St-Emilion in particular stood out for having really delivered on the potential that it showed during en primeur’
Ratings: new perspective
Is the discrepancy in the rating for the reds, in between the en primeur tastings and now, down to estates being extremely selective in the samples they presented en primeur in spring 2019? Unlikely. I would say it is more probable that the ageing process wasn’t simple when dealing with the high alcohols of such a dry summer, which had led to unusual factors such as Cabernet Sauvignon at 14.5% alcohol and higher.
This is not something that Bordeaux has to deal with often, and some properties did not adjust their ageing practices to account for the impact. This came through most notably, over the time the wine has spent in bottle, in the style of the tannins extracted, and I would suggest looking out for slightly unwieldy oak impact – even in the starry appellations of Margaux, Pomerol and St-Estèphe.
Having said that, there were some notable high points. St-Emilion in particular stood out for having really delivered on the potential that it showed during en primeur, with many of its limestone soils keeping freshness but also benefiting from creamy fruits that reached full ripeness.
St-Julien and Pauillac also saw some brilliant successes, where the ripe Cabernets were kept in check by the freshening influence of the Garonne river. Of the value appellations, I would suggest looking to Fronsac and Castillon.
Perfect scores
Of the seven potential 100-pointers (all awarded 98-100 points) that I highlighted en primeur – which were, at the time, Châteaux Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse, Cheval Blanc,
Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Pichon Comtesse, Palmer and Vieux Château Certan – in the end, I gave the full monty to Cheval, Mouton and Palmer, and also to Ausone, elevated from 98pts.
The others got 98pts (and there’s a 99 for Château Léoville Las Cases), so all still brilliant wines that will more than reward getting hold of. As you can see from the fact that 100pts have been awarded to wines from Pauillac, Margaux and St-Emilion, there are high points all over Bordeaux in 2018, but I would say it is St-Emilion’s year overall.
And I would once again like to draw attention to the 94pts level. This for me is a real sweet spot, and I always underline how much pleasure these wines give – they are at the very top of the Highly Recommended band (90-94pts using the Decanter system), and I have scored a ton of great wines at this level, including Châteaux Bellefont-Belcier, Clos du Clocher, Gazin, Haut-Batailley, La Clotte, La Serre, Lafon Rochet, Langoa Barton, Prieuré Lichine and Couhins Lurton (not all reviewed in these pages: see Decanter.com/Premium for more). This is only a selection: there are about 40 wines at this level, almost as many as all of the Exceptional and Outstanding wines that stretch from 95-100pts.