Bordeaux 2015: Vintage of the century...? Not quite
The world’s wine trade made their annual pilgrimage to Bordeaux in early April and ahead of time everyone was getting quite excited. We had heard the rumours that most Bordeaux chateaux owners thought they had made a pretty decent wine. It’s quite normal that sometime after Christmas, when you first hear anecdotal evidence about what is going on in Bordeaux, you find that as each month goes by the noise about an exceptional vintage becomes louder and louder. This usually ends with cries of ‘Vintage of the century!’ However, we have heard this so often that we have become hardened enough to pretty much ignore it. This year the French did not shout it from the rooftops and in my opinion they were correct not to do so.
Bordeaux 2015: Margaux and Pomerol Shine!
2015 is a very good Bordeaux vintage, probably the best since 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2010. It is not quite as good as those vintages but it is still a very good vintage. Why is that? Well, it is not as uniformly good as those ones as it is quite patchy, not all regions made great wine. Margaux and Pomerol seem to be the best, St Estephe is quite variable; St Julien and Pauillac merely very good. Graves, though, is also excellent. The last time the Margaux appellation outshone its northerly neighbours like this was way back in 1983.
Bordeaux 2015: Is it worth buying these wines?
In one word “Yes” but only if you want good value drinking claret at the Cru Bourgeois level. MWH Wines will be buying these wines and can thoroughly recommend them. The classed growths are clearly going to be quite pricey. So far ex-negociant prices are about 10% up on last year but with the pound’s weakness this will end up at about 20% more. I would urge caution in buying the top wines as I don’t think they will increase in value at all over the next few years. The £10.00 to £30.00 per bottle level is where you want to be. Many wines have a lovely freshness to them with juicy fruit and soft tannins. They don’t have the wow factor of the other top vintages mentioned above but they will provide good drinking for many years. This is the first time the fine wine trade have got (moderately) excited since 2010. We have had a long wait!
If you are interested in purchasing Bordeaux 2015 wines, feel free to register your interest by contacting me here.
Mike Hall
