Bordeaux 2018 in bottle: full overview plus top scoring wines

Bordeaux 2018 overall score

4/5

Left Bank reds score

4/5

Right Bank reds score

4.5/5

Dry whites score

3.5/5

Sauternes score

3/5

Overviews and top scoring wines for Left Bank and Right Bank

Plus individual appellation overviews for:

St-Estèphe, Pauillac, St-Julien, Margaux, Médoc / Haut Médoc/ Listrac / Moulis and Pessac-Leognan & Graves |

St-Émilion, Pomerol, satellite appellations / lesser communes |

Sauternes & Barsac

Tasting conditions

As with the en primeur tastings earlier in the year, the 2018 in bottle assessment coincided with a lockdown in France where travelling became complicated. But in the end, between châteaux visits and home deliveries, I tasted around double the number of wines as for last year’s 2017 in bottle report; close to 600 labels in total.

A particularly useful exercise, where the atypical conditions that were highlighted in our en primeur report have resulted in some issues over ageing. This is still a highly successful vintage for red Bordeaux, but there are hesitations over certain wines, and I am revising down my overall rating for the vintage to 4, not 4.5, out of 5 for the reds (although the rating remains unchanged at 4.5 for the Right Bank in the regional breakdowns).

For the whites and the sweets, my vintage rating stays the same, 3.5 for dry whites and 3 for Sauternes.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s top scoring Bordeaux 2018 wine tasting notes and scores

Ratings

Is the discrepancy for the reds because estates were extremely selective in the samples they presented en primeur? Unlikely. I would say it is more probable that the ageing process wasn’t simple when dealing with the high alcohols of such a dry summer that led to unusual things such as Cabernet Sauvignon at 14.5% ABV and higher.

This is not something that Bordeaux has to often deal with, and some properties did not adjust their ageing practices to account for the impact. This came through most notably in the style of tannins extracted over the time the wine has spent in bottle, and I would suggest looking out for slightly unwieldy oak impact – even in the starry appellations of Margaux, Pomerol and St Estèphe.

Having said that, there were some notable highpoints.

St-Emilion in particular stood out for having really delivered on the potential that it showed during en primeur, with many of the limestone soils keeping freshness but also benefiting from creamy fruits that reached full ripeness.

St Julien and Pauillac also saw some brilliant successes, where the ripe Cabernets were kept in check by the freshening influence of the Garonne river.

Of the value appellations, I would suggest looking to Fronsac and Castillon.

See all Bordeaux 2018 in bottle tasting notes and score

Perfect scores

Of the seven potential 100s that I gave during en primeur, (that were, at the time Cheval Blanc, Vieux Château Certan, Beausejour Duffau Lagarosse, Pichon Comtesse, Mouton Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild and Palmer, all awarded 98-100), I gave the full monty in the end to Palmer, Mouton and Cheval – and also Ausone, up from 98.

The others got 98 points (or a 99 for Léoville Las Cases), so all still brilliant wines that will more than reward getting hold of.

As you can see from the fact that 100 points have been awarded to wines from Pauillac, Margaux and St-Emilion, there are high points all over Bordeaux in 2018, but I would say it is St-Emilion’s year overall.

And I would once again like to draw attention to the 94 points level. This for me is a real sweet spot, and I always underline just how much pleasure they give – they are at the very top of the Highly Recommended band (90-94 points using the Decanter system), and there are a ton of great wines at this level, including

• Langoa Barton
• Prieuré Lichine
• Lafon Rochet
• Haut-Batailley
• La Clotte
• Bellefont-Belcier
• Clos du Clocher
• Gazin
• La Serre
• Couhins Lurton

This is only a selection, there are around 40 wines at this level, almost as many as all of the ‘Exceptional’ and ‘Outstanding’ wines that stretch from 95 to 100 points.

The other score level that I would point out is 89. We seem to have entirely forgotten than wines scoring just under 90 often offer brilliant values and unfussy pleasure. Châteaux often get upset at receiving scores at this level, but for a consumer this is another sweet spot that I look out for if the price and construction of the wine corresponds to something that is built for early-to-medium-term drinking.

Vintage style

A very brief vintage recap: 2018 was split into two distinct halves, where things were extremely wet until early July, and then extremely dry right through until October.

Of the five conditions that are tracked by the Institute of Oenology each year to assess potential quality, there was not a clean sweep in this vintage, as there was for 2005, 2009 and 2015.

But 2018 did partially meet four of the five, as was the case in 2010 and 2016.

• The first condition of rapid and even flowering was met
• The second of good fruit-set was partially met, although there was rain at this point, and issues with mildew.
• The third condition detailing the onset of water stress was partially met. ‘A little late due to rain through into July, but when it happened it was abrupt and complete,’ said professor Axel Marchal, of ISVV.
• The final two conditions of slow and complete ripening and picking under optimal conditions were fully met in most cases, with the warning that in some cases over-concentration occurred at this point – something that had to be carefully handled during vinification and ageing.

Yields

Yields were low in some cases due to mildew – Durfort Vivens for example saw 10hl/ha, Palmer 11hl/ha and Pontet Canet 12hl/ha. Some estates handled this well (notably Palmer), but sorting had to be unbelievably careful to avoid dried fruit flavours that are typical with mildew-impacted bunches.

Drinking windows

In general, 2018 wines are not as well-built and muscular as 2016, and so should be ready a little earlier, especially as there is so much ripe fruit in the wines. The 2017s however are lighter-framed and will be ready first in most cases – and also have less ageing potential than the 2018s in almost every case.

Prices

We are now almost two years on from en primeur, but the physical release of the bottles has not impacted prices as much as might have been hoped.

Initial release prices were, in most cases, higher than 2017 – Liv-ex records the average price rise in the UK as being 17.9% higher than 2017, with Euro prices seen at almost exactly the same level as 2016 in many cases.

Only a few prices have since moved upwards – with the biggest mover according to Liv-ex being Lafite-Rothschild, rising 16% since release to just under £7,000 on the UK market, no doubt helped by the special label that celebrates the 150th anniversary since the property was bought by Baron James de Rothschild in 1868.

Liv-ex also records Calon-Ségur as moving up 3.4% (now at just under £800), and Vieux Château Certan up 2.7% (at £2,700). The Liv-ex charts shows both Beychevelle and Pontet unchanged, and drops for, among others, Smith Haut Lafitte, Mouton and Grand Puy Lacoste.

2018 v 2019

On my tastings here, Mouton Rothschild should be able to recoup that loss over the long-term, as it is a wine that more than delivers on the promise of long-ageing and quality – even though its 2019 was priced so well that it is bound to impact on the desirability of the 2018 for at least the next few years. Bear in mind also that the value of the pound has dropped further this year, impacting on relative affordability.

The majority of labels have stayed at or around their release price. They have not been helped by the fact that the 2019 vintage is a little more consistent, and has been priced more attractively due to the pressures of the market at the time of their release (seeing average prices 19% lower than 2018, with a few headline exceptions such as Mouton Rothschild and Pontet Canet that released a full 30% below their 2018 prices).

The market expects the 2018s to hold their value, but there is no expectation that they are going to fire up anytime soon.

Prices going forward also depend on the release prices of the 2020 vintage. If the market has not recovered by then – and it seems unlikely to have done so – then 2018 might start to look expensive in comparison to two competitively-priced vintages.

See Jane Anson’s top scoring Bordeaux 2018 wine tasting notes and scores

The following 25 wines scored 97 points or above.

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