Bordeaux 2023 wine styles broadly mark a contrast to both the concentrated, plush and hedonistic wines of 2022 and the cool, crisp, sometimes austere wines from 2021.
They have elements of 2019 and 2020 in there, and some liken them to 2001, but they are really quite individual and set a new tone for fine, controlled and accessible Bordeaux.
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The best wines have remarkable depth and concentration, with high acidities offering a lively freshness and sense of tang.
Despite the overall warmth of the year, there isn’t an overt ‘solar’ style and the wines are a curious combination of both a hot and cool vintage thanks to early wet and soggy conditions and late heatwaves and drought.
They offer palates that comprise finely-integrated tannins (many topping the IPT index and thus comparable to 2022 in that respect), and plushly textured bodies akin to those from a sunny vintage – alongside raciness, tension, spice, minerality and delicate floral aromatics more commonly found in cooler vintages.
Many have remarkable lengths that carry the flavours long after tasting, and the most highly regarded leave a moreish sensation. Ultimately, the most successful have a wonderful drinkable quality that will delight lovers of more ‘quaffable’ Bordeaux.
They also offer plenty of appellation and estate signatures, unlike in 2022 when the wines often reflected the hot and dry vintage more than the terroir.
Bordeaux 2023 better showcases specific soil types and winemaking styles, with clear evidence of picking dates in the acidities and mid-palate textures, blends in the aromatics and flavours, and winemaking style in the appearance of oak and length of the finish.
‘Wines from clay taste like they’re from clay, and the same for gravel,’ remarked Pierre-Olivier Clouet at Cheval Blanc.
While not as qualitative across the board as 2019, 2020 or 2022, many agree the vintage is better than both 2017 and 2021 – with elements of lots of vintages in the resulting tastes, depending which estate you’re at.
In some ways, the vintage is a ‘modern classic’, or just simply ‘modern’, since classic has such a negative connotation in the region these days.
I’ve said before Bordeaux wines have never been better and that is evident once again in 2023, with the best wines being precise, pure and approachable.
This is down to more than just a shift in approach. Winemakers are using the latest vineyard and cellar technologies, as well as smaller vinification tanks in state-of-the-art wineries – a raft of which were inaugurated, or at least in use for, the 2023 vintage.
Producers also have their experience in battling various vintage challenges over the years.
They are equally helped by increasingly younger, adept and conscientious consultants offering their expertise. Investments over the last decade seem to be paying off, with better sorting and stricter selections, as well as more micro-vinifications, plus experiments with less oak and more inert tanks to retain freshness.
However, not everyone got it right in 2023 and the weather forced winemakers’ hands on many an occasion.
While a few wines seem to have surpassed their 2022 counterparts, or at least proved just as exciting, many others unfortunately suffered from one or more of the challenges presented during the vintage.
There are green, unripe fruit flavours, harsh and strict tannins, overly tart and acidic wines, weak/hollow mid-palates and short finishes.
There is sometimes a stark contrast between first and second wines. Estates without the means to cope with mildew or long harvests, often those on less vaunted terroirs, have also struggled with quantities – further reducing their ability to make necessary selections.
That said, these wines are mostly likely to be found outside the sphere of the wines sold en primeur, which represents a fraction of the total wine produced in the region.
Approximately 200-300 wines maximum are sold as futures. However, Decanter’s full report will cover in excess of 600 wines to offer a comprehensive analysis of the vintage at all stages and across the entire region.
As such, there are some lovely wines at all price-points, with some Cru Bourgeois properties in the Haut-Médoc performing well.
It’s worth noting, however, that the new Cru Bourgeois rankings, covering the 2023 vintage, won’t be revealed until December.
The estates on limestone in Right Bank satellite appellations such as Castillon and Fronsac, Lussac and Montagne, which are often more keenly priced than those in St-Emilion, have also done well.
Fans of Bordeaux’s dry whites and sweet wines will also be happy in 2023. Although there are of course differing styles, based largely on the amount of Sauvignon Blanc or Sémillon in the blend, they have freshness, purity and refinement, while packing a punch in terms of flavour.
In some ways, they are more homogeneous than the reds, but there are far fewer of them to be fully conclusive.
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