How the Médoc classified wines taste now: Bordeaux in bottle 2015

Médoc 2015 classified wines at a glance: Château Margaux is the Médoc wine of the vintage More varied quality in the north of the region If you're looking at the market and prices, think about Bordeaux 2015 alongside 2014 and 2016 as a trilogy [subscriber-content] Scroll down to see all of the wines Tasting the results in-bottle of classified wines in a celebrated vintage might not seem like the toughest gig in the world, admittedly. It is generally accepted that the quality of the Bordeaux 2015 wines was exceptional, and released during en primeur into a market that was ready for some good news after the more difficult vintages of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. But as we saw with the first part of this 2015 in-bottle assessment , focusing more on the Cru Bourgeois level, while the Right Bank, Pessac and Margaux managed to harvest under pretty much perfect conditions, the northern Médoc AOCs had to contend with a little more rain, and showed a certain uneven quality spread now in bottle. Of course classified wines have a bigger budget and greater call on manpower to deal with difficult conditions, but they also are asking for more money from wine lovers to buy them, so it’s worth paying close attention to what you are going to get in bottle. As expected, the Margaux appellation really did shine, even more almost in bottle than it had during en primeur. I remember being blown away by the Château Margaux at the time, and it has more than lived up to its promise over ageing – a truly fine epitaph for Paul Pontallier. Plenty of other châteaux in Margaux made what may be their best ever wines – I would put Cantenac Brown and Prieuré Lichine in this list but there are plenty of others that I put in the 93+ category. Up in the northern Médoc, the expertise that these guys have over ageing really came into play; a lot of the austere tannins during en primeur have been made more supple and enticing, but there is still some fluctuations in quality, and certainly some proof that 2014 and 2016 offer greater potential in many cases. So my advice to look at pricing differences between these three vintages still stands. I say this because at the time of release, (using figures from Eleanor Wine), 2015 wines were up an average of 22.7% from 2014, with price rises seen even up in the northern Médoc appellations of St-Julien (+21.5% from 2014 on average), Pauillac (+29.5%) and St Estèphe (+18.9%). Bordeaux as a whole followed its usual trick of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ – so it was always going to be interesting to see in bottle if they were able to justify this. If you’re buying today, some prices have risen steeply (but not all, with many hardly budging at all, or even dropping slightly). Liv-ex has recently compiled a list of estimated market prices for the top Bordeaux 2015 wines, comparing them versus en primeur release prices. It records the highest rise for Château Canon over in St-Emilion (reviews of the Right Bank classifieds to come in a few weeks) followed by Carruades de Lafite up 100% (a very good Carruades, but for me not as successful in 2015 as Petit Mouton, up 73% at number 4 in the Liv-ex chart). My only 100-point wine in the 2015 Médocs, Chateau Margaux, is up 73% in price (the 5 th biggest riser) versus en primeur release, according to Liv-ex. If you can afford it, you are not going to be disappointed. [/subscriber-content] Bordeaux in bottle 2015: Médoc wines tasted and rated [wine-collection] You may also like: Top Bordeaux 2016 wines in bottle: Full Médoc report Bordeaux 2018 wines: Our en primeur verdict

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How the Médoc classified wines taste now: Bordeaux in bottle 2015

Médoc 2015 classified wines at a glance:

Bordeaux in bottle 2015: Médoc wines tasted and rated

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