Weekly Tasting Report (Jan 25-31, 2021): Precise Bordeaux 2018 whites
James tastes some of this week’s complement of US wines in James Suckling Wine Central in Hong Kong.
We have even more 2018 Bordeaux ratings in today’s report covering last week’s tasting that covered more than 420 wines including some amazing bottles such as Pomerol’s Chateau Lafleur and St. Emilion’s Chateau Pavie. We already reviewed close to 1,100 2018 Bordeaux in bottle.
It’s impressive how the 2018s have such intense fruit and ripeness yet they maintain their Bordeaux personality with defined character reflective of their appellations and unique terroirs and a brightness and freshness in most cases. They also are relatively approachable for such young and structured reds. I would argue that the 2018s are more Bordeaux-like that even great years such as 2009, because the latter is really rich with ripe fruit and heavily marked by the hot growing season of the vintage.
“They are wines with incredible potential but they have this incredible balance,” said Oliver Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier in a Zoom interview last week. Check out the video below and click through to the story to see our summary and the wines tasted. “2009 was very charming. 2010 was a little bit sharp [tannic]. 2018 is between the 2009 and 2010.”
The above is most likely attributed to the incredible winemaking prowess of Bordeaux wine estates. They really fine-tuned their vineyards to combat the difficulties of the growing season – 2018 had a lot of wet weather the first half of the year, with mildew and then hot and dry weather in the summer – and so many of Bordeaux’s winemakers also are attentive in their winemaking to make sure they pick their grapes at the right time and they don’t over-extract tannins. It was all about making balanced and well-structured wine.
The same is true with the dry whites from 2018. “2018 was not an easy vintage for whites,” said Bernard. “We had a warm summer and warm summers are not easy for whites. We had to protect the fruit and not take the leaves too early. We had to protect the fruit from the sun.” He said that many people may have harvested a little too early in 2018 for white but they were happy with their results.
“The secret of the 2018 was precision,” he said. “Precision of the maturity of the grapes. Precision of the harvest. Precision in terms of the vinification. Precision in terms of aging. This vintage was not easy. It was not like 2017 or 2019. It was quite easy to have unripe grapes. It was quite easy to be too oaky. It was quite easy to have too much alcohol. It was quite easy to have low acidity. It was quite easy to have something wrong.”
He said that the improvement in winemaking, particularly in the dry whites, has been a revolutionary. So they could produce top wines in 2018.
I asked Bernard if he preferred his 2018, which may be Domaine de Chevalier’s best ever in my opinion, to his 2019 and he answer a wholehearted “Yes.” He noted also that the 2019 is generally substantially lower priced than 2018. This, of course, will be a factor in the sales of 2018 as they become available in the market. I think it depends on the wine.
A couple of non-Bordeaux wines are also important to watch out for in this report including the new release of Brunello di Montalcino’s Biondi Santi and a new wine from Napa Valley’s Schrader.
-
- Chateau Pavie produced one of the top-rated wines of our tastings last week.
-
- The Biondi-Santi 2015 is one of its best wines in recent years.
The 2015 Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino is one of its best wines in a long time and shows a fantastic transparency and balance. The new owners of Biondi Santi are really polishing the quality of the famous Tuscan estate and I notice less funky wood character from the long aging in Biondi Santi’s cellar, which was problematic in the past.
The Schrader Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville To Kalon Vineyard Heritage Clone 2018 is the inaugural wine from a special part of the To Kalon vineyard owned by the Constellation beverage group that also owns the Robert Mondavi Vineyard and part of Opus One, among others. I was impressed with its richness and intensity but it remained cool and balanced. It comes from the N2S block in To Kalon Vineyard.
Another interesting red is the first vintage of Chateau L’If, the St. Emilion winery owned by the Thienpont family of Pomerol’s Le Pin. But it was released under a different name – Leaf. It’s a little riper and richer than normal vintages of L’If (the 2018 in this report is exceptional quality) and may lack some of the finesse and complexity of vintages after 2010. But it’s a collector’s item due to its rarity.
Another wine I really enjoyed was the Château Soucherie Savennières Clos des Perrières 2018 that I rated yesterday. The complexity and brightness of this Chenin makes me want to taste, rate and drink more great whites from the Loire Valley. Try some.
So, there are lots of interesting wines from France, United States, Italy and Portugal in this report and I hope you enjoy it.
– James Suckling, editor