Best of Bordeaux 2019: Top 10 St.-Estephe wines

St.-Estephe is one of the four major wine-growing appellations of the Medoc.

Bordeaux’s 2019 vintage has proven itself as a vintage to venerate. After tasting more than 1,000 wines, which were flown into Hong Kong from Bordeaux especially, James considers this vintage as good as 2018 in quality, albeit different and more “Bordeaux-like” in character. With many chateaux reducing prices compared to the 2018, this year’s en primeur campaign offers opportunities to buy some big names at lower-than-usual cost.

St.-Estephe came out particularly well, overall. This northernmost appellation in the Medoc region is known for delivering diverse wines, thanks to its varying soils and multitude of micro-climates. We’ve picked out the top 10 en primeur wines we tasted from the appellation this year, which you can see below.

Cos d’Estournel was a standout (98-99 points), with a wine that James described as “a classic wine with historical grip and power.” 

“If we didn’t have the rain in September, we would we would have lost some quality right away,” admitted Cos d’Estournel Technical Director Dominique Arangoits. “It would have been hard to change. The style of the wine fruit could have been affected. The water brought a freshness. It is part of the miracle of the vintage.”

But many others received outstanding scores too. Check out the notes below and look out for these wines as they appear on the market.

This is part of an extensive en primeur tasting campaign being conducted by James, which has already covered 1,000 wines, with more to come. The reports are listed below:

Bordeaux en primeur first report: A potentially challenging vintage
Bordeaux en primeur second report: 1,000 notes and scores
Pricing report: Pontet-Canet’s decision to slash its prices

The list below is by highest score range and then alphabetical.