I am sure most of our followers expect Bordeaux to fill many slots in our list of the Top 100 wines of France 2018. We are huge fans of the 2015 vintage in Bordeaux, which produced glorious wines with fantastic structure and richness and were bright and fresh at the same time. They are archetypal Bordeaux, reminiscent of the great vintages of the 1980s but with much more precision and verve.
You may wonder why our No. 1 is not Chateau Canon, which was our No. 1 wine for our general list of the Top 100 Wines of 2018. It’s because we decided to choose another 100 point Bordeaux for the No. 1 Wine of France 2018 with no consideration to price. The Chateau Margaux 2015 is about $1,400 a bottle. You can buy a case of six bottles of Canon 2015 for that!
Château Latour, the French wine estate, rated as a First Growth under the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
However, the Margaux 2015 is already a legend and we believe it is the best wine released in France this year – at least of the more than 4,300 French wines we rated (we rated more than 22,000 wines in 2018 from around the world). It was the Wine of the Vintage 2015 in Bordeaux for many wine pros as well. The wine has phenomenal density and structure. It may be the greatest Margaux ever and sadly the last vintage of late wine director Paul Pontailler. He was a dear friend and great wine man.
Canon is in our No. 2 position and is at the top of the group for quality from Bordeaux and the Right Bank even if compared to wines that cost 10 times the price. This is another legend in the making and will be remembered in the same light as other classic Canons such as 1947, 1959 and 1964.
The remaining top 10 wines from France are Bordeaux, except for Chateau de Beaucastel at No. 10 with its super cuvee Hommage à Jacques Perrin. We included no less than 66 Bordeaux in our list. The rest is made up mostly from Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne, Rhône and Beaujolais. All the wines on the list needed ratings of 98 points or above to be included in the list with the exception of a Beaujolais and Southern Rhônes. Price was less of a factor in the ranking compared to our overall Top 100 Wines of 2018.
Followers looking for value on our list should focus on Alsace, Rhône and Beaujolais. We rate more than 500 wines from Alsace each year and the wines are some of the most terroir-driven in France, representing amazing value in single vineyard white. We have a lone Beaujolais on the list from the gamay guru Jean Foillard – Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py 2016. The 2016 Beaujolais are much more typical and fresh than the lavishly ripe 2015s and Foillard Cote du Py is a classic.
The Rhône Valley is sitting pretty on the back of two very successful vintages in 2015 and 2016 and the wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape are at an all-time high point for quality and balance in 2016. The 100-point Beaucastel Homage à Jacques Perrin 2016 mentioned above is a Southern Rhône supermodel with a sense of shape, youth and balance as well as athletic power and grace. Vieux Télégraphe’s La Crau 2016 is also a class above as is the beautifully pure 2016 from Domaine de Ferrand.
The 2015 Chateau Canon, our wine of the year with incredible depth, structure and finesse.
There is also the outstanding and memorable 2015 Cornas from the cultish cellar of Domaine Auguste Clape, a wine handsomely pitched in this richer vintage. The Clape family said goodbye to 93-year-old patriarch Pierre-Auguste in July this year, a giant of this appellation. His legacy will be celebrated for as long as syrah is grown on the region’s dramatic slopes.
Champagne continues to deliver fascinatingly diverse quality but the wines that rose to the top in 2018 represent the might of legendary producers Louis Roederer, Krug, Billecart-Salmon, Dom Pérignon and Taittinger. Cristal Rosé and Dom Pérignon, both from the great 2008 vintage, underscore the already bold regard for the 2008 vintage even more deeply. 2008 Dom carries extra significance for collectors with a special release marking the passing of the Chef de Cave reins from Richard Geoffroy to Vincent Chaperon. Also the Cristal Vinothèque 1996 is quite possibly the ultimate collector’s Champagne this year.
We hope you enjoy our list of the Top 100 Wines of France 2018. We know many are very expensive but there are some that offer great value for the quality, particularly the Jean Folliard Beaujolais and some Southern Rhône reds. Next year should be another great year for Bordeaux as the 2016s will be released. But we hope to find other great wines coming on to the market in 2019 with reviewing close to 5,000 from France. — James Suckling, CEO & Editor, and Nick Stock, Senior Editor
