The Future’s Not What It Was: Bordeaux 2018

BY NEAL MARTIN | NOVEMBER 14, 2019 

Left Bank: Margaux | Pauillac | Pessac-Léognan | Saint-Estèphe | Saint-Julien | Satellites 

Right Bank: Pomerol | Saint-Émilion | Sauternes | Satellites 

“L’avenir est comme le reste: il n’est plus ce qu’il était” – poet Paul Valéry (1937)

The opening quotation translates as: “The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.” It pertains to this article on multiple levels. Firstly, the macro environment and the issue of global warming. No, we will not see Greta Thunberg sailing down the Gironde quite yet, but unusually dry and hot growing seasons have become the norm, and in conversation with winemakers, I notice how even the most skeptical accept that it is not passing phase. Warmer temperatures will shape future practices required to counter higher alcohol and lower acidity levels. Secondly, the quotation applies to the economic factors that confront the en primeur system. Châteaux withholding stock and withdrawing by stealth from the Place de Bordeaux; competition from ever-improving wine regions snapping at their heels; release prices that range from reasonable to comical; the changing role and consolidation of négociants; merchants cherry-picking primeur releases and ignoring the rest; fluctuating demand, consumer fatigue at yet another hyped vintage and the risk of oversupply; and don’t let’s start on the nasty surprise of 25% import tariffs. Thirdly, that phrase is apt on a personal level. For the first time in 20 years, I was prevented from attending the spring barrel tastings, by a spot of surgery. My future? It isn’t what I thought it would be.

Nevertheless, I resolved that once shipshape, I would report on the latest vintage; I would rather look back upon 2019 as a year when I had to postpone my primeur report, not cancel it altogether. Moreover, I had always entertained the idea of tasting barrels later in the year, given numerous winemakers imploring that their newborns taste better further down their élevage. Here was an opportunity to discover how true that is.

I spent two weeks in Bordeaux in late September as the secateurs were being sharpened for the 2019 harvest, enabling me to witness the new crop up close while judging the previous one. My trip was slightly shorter than usual, so the number of visits and tastings had to be rationed. I had no desire to hurtle from one château to another, squeezing in as much as humanly possible. A couple of estates were understandably occupied with the harvest and could not see me, but totting up the notes, only a handful of names are missing. (I will make sure they are included in my in-bottle report.) As usual, photographer-cum-wingman Johan Berglund was indispensable while driving the length and breadth of Bordeaux, and his photos adorn this report.

Tasting at Latour. The First Growth produced an outstanding 2018, although the château having withdrawn from offering their wines the following spring, it will not be available to buy for a number of years.

The Growing Season

I will not dwell on the growing season since Antonio Galloni has summarized it on Vinous already. Simply, 2018 falls into a type of vintage that is becoming more regular: Rainy in the first half, sunny in the second. I recommend reading Baptiste Guinaudeau’s analysis of patterns in the Pomerol section. Persistent rain caused intense mildew pressure that acutely affected organically and especially biodynamically farmed vineyards such as Château Palmer. Once you had survived the traumatic first part of the season, the vines enjoyed a blissfully hot and dry summer all the way through to harvest. There is only one point I wish to add to my colleague’s vintage summary. He made a crucial point that much success stems from wineries being equipped with various-sized vats that are smaller than in the past, enabling pickers to zone in on specific parcels at a specific time (as long as it’s not the weekend) and ferment those plots individually. The challenge is twofold. Firstly, picking earlier in the season, when there are more daylight hours, means that daily sugar accumulation is more rapid than if it were later; ergo, picking a day or two tardy may result in higher alcohol than intended. Secondly, the desired sugar level must be attained when the fruit achieves phenolic ripeness, which nowadays tends to lag behind due to shortened hang time. In some cases, I found potentially good 2018s marred by one or two vats that clearly contained green fruit.

Assessing wines further down their barrel maturation meant that in some cases I tasted the final blend, whereas back in March/April they would have been an estimation of that blend. I had to be mindful of when racking had been done, just like in Burgundy, and I accounted for the fact that the gestating wines would have absorbed more oak by that stage. Some growers opined that their 2018s had become “more serious” since en primeur. Then again, I am sure they prefer their wines flatter exactly at the time when journalists migrate down in spring.

The Wines

The 2018 vintage is very good to excellent in quality. However, it does not demonstrate the consistency of 2005 or 2016, and it lacks the pinnacles that mark 2010 and, again, 2016.

It is clear that 2018 is a flattering vintage and, coupled with the well-oiled promotional machine cranked up each primeur, I see how it prompted occasionally eulogistic reviews. The style of these, let us not forget, unfinished wines, with all their succulent ripe fruit and silky textures, renders them seductive. But I aver that Bordeaux should aspire toward more than sensory fulfillment. This is a vintage where I sought to look beyond the obvious tangible elements of the samples and focus on more intangible elements. Does the potential wine communicate the signature traits of the château? Does it translate the typicité of the appellation? Behind the sensory appeal, does it bestow an intellectual aspect elevating it above its peers and toward the pinnacles of those aforementioned vintages? Away from the hullabaloo and high production values of en primeur, tasting at a slightly slower pace in tranquil surroundings, one could really dissect the wines and probe winemakers face-to-face, objectively examine the samples in the context of the previous twenty vintages that I have appraised from barrel. This approach revealed a handful of genuinely astonishing 2018s. Others fell a bit short of the high expectations that are justifiably attached to wines where no expense is spared.

Scores never tell the whole story. Perhaps mine are lower than others and sometimes by a significant margin. That does not bother me; I tell it like it is. I mention this because the lower number can be misconstrued as a damning assessment when in truth, relative to recent vintages, I certainly view the 2018s in a positive light. I enjoyed them immensely and have no doubt they will bestow great pleasure. And yet there was not a single occasion when I encountered a barrel sample that intimated potential perfection. Not once. That is not being mean; it is just a sober evaluation. There are two further points that I will make. When I questioned winemakers further, on several occasions I noticed how their initial unbridled enthusiasm for 2018 did not exactly burst under questioning, but seemed to gently deflate, perhaps to a degree more commensurate with the quality of the wine. And a majority of winemakers believe that their 2019s are superior to 2018 due to slightly better pH. Having witnessed the harvest first-hand, I believe their optimism is not misplaced. I anticipate that superlatives lavished on the 2018s will not be quite so forthcoming once there is the next vintage to sell.

As usual, this report breaks down the vintage by appellation (links provided at the top of this page). But let’s briefly scan the market for Bordeaux. Rough seas ahead?