Weekly Tasting Report (Jan 18-24, 2021): 2018 proves special in Bordeaux and Napa
James tastes over Zoom with Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, owner of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and his team.
The 2018 vintage for Bordeaux is turning out to be really exceptional, especially for the top names. Not only are there hundreds of fantastic quality wines, but they were made in an unusually chaotic year when winemakers had all sorts of problems thrown at them from flooding and vineyard diseases to drought and hot weather. Yet they managed to make special wines through incredibly hard work and a little luck.
This shows in our tastings last week of about 330 wines from Bordeaux with a number of perfect wines as well as many rated 99 and 98 points. The reds show intense fruitiness but it is not overpowering like other hot vintages such as 2009. They show the typical character of the appellations and in many instances their unique terroirs.
“Each wine really shows their true character,” said Ariane Khaida, the head of chateaux for the Rothschild family of Mouton Rothschild, Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac.
In many cases the character of the wines is amplified by the 2018 vintage. It’s like listening to a piece of music on your audio component and turning up the volume with no distortion. It’s a special vintage and I still have several hundred to taste, which should bring the total number 2018 Bordeaux reviewed over the past few weeks to well over 1,000 wines.
Don’t forget about the dry whites from Bordeaux in 2018. The accepted wisdom for the region is that 2017 is a better vintage because it was a cooler growing season and the grapes were harvested with higher acidity making fresher wines. But I am finding that the 2018s are equal in quality in many cases. Smith Haut Lafitte winemaker Fabien Teitgen pointed out in a Zoom interview that they were very precise in their white grape picking in 2018, making a number of harvests with some earlier and some later, which gave the wines both freshness and richness.
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- James’ tastings this week included a number of “beautiful and energetic” Bordeaux whites …
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- … and this ‘secret’ Napa Valley wine, a beautiful first release from Napa’s Dalla Valle and Tuscany’s Ornellaia.
I also tasted with my team in Hong Kong another 100 or so wines from France, Italy and the United States. The Napa Valley wines from the 2018 vintage are very impressive, not to mention the few from Sonoma – both red and white. Plus, I tasted a few 2019 whites that are fabulous. Both vintages emphasize balance and harmony which has been a trend for the last 10 vintages but these two vintages have it spot on. Not only did the vintages’ long and even grape growing seasons yield refined and nicely ripened grapes, it also allowed winemakers to make decisions to harvest beautiful grapes and produce balanced and elegant wines.
“The 2018 and 2019 summer and fall were fairly mild so both years were good years because we had the time to do a lot of segmentation in the vineyard and do what we had to do at the right time,” said Helene Mingot, winemaker and vineyard manager of Eisele Vineyard in Napa Valley, who made a wonderful 2019 sauvignon blanc, one of the best in the United States, and two super 2018 cabernet sauvignons.
There are some great wines below to check out. Many are just now or soon to be released like the 2018 Bordeaux. Stay tuned for another 400 or so ratings next week.
– James Suckling, editor
The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.