St-Emilion and Pomerol 2015: Panel tasting results

Jane Anson, Andy Howard MW and Tim Triptree MW tasted 111 wines with eight outstanding and 57 highly recommended.

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit St-Emilion grand cru classé and Pomerol wines from the 2015 vintage, with no price restrictions.

The Verdict

‘This was a great tasting,’ opened Jane Anson. ‘I was really impressed with the level. I was expecting it to be good, but I’m happy we weren’t disappointed.’ Despite not having such high hopes initially – thinking the 2015s would be ‘out of balance’ or ‘excessive and overly alcoholic’ – fellow judges Tim Triptree MW and Andy Howard MW agreed.

‘The quality of the 2015s really surprised me. With some exceptions, they are well balanced, with ripe fruit and very easy to drink,’ said Triptree. Howard also found them ‘balanced with restraint’. He addded: ‘I was expecting them to be big and bruising but I was very impressed’.

In total 111 wines were tasted, split very evenly between the two Right Bank appellations of St-Emilion and Pomerol, but despite their close proximity Anson found the differences between the regions’ wines ‘striking’.

Scroll down to see the top wine tasting notes & scores

‘For people trying to decide what to buy, there are generally two styles,’ she said. ‘In Pomerol, the wines have a lower acidity with plusher tannins and fruits, compared with slightly higher austerity in some of the St-Emilions – they’re delicious but you see the minerality more and that definitely came through in the tasting.’

When asked for a preference, all of the judges chose Pomerol, as it did slightly better overall and held more interest. While there were excellent wines from St-Emilion too, the quality was more variable as a whole.

This is reflected in the results, with six out of the eight wines ranked Outstanding coming from Pomerol – even though the top-scoring wine of the tasting was a St-Emilion.

With regard to scores and drinkability, Anson highlighted the different criteria for judging. ‘If we’re giving a high score to something that can be drunk soon, it’s got to be really juicy, easy to drink and approachable. You want a wine that people can open and be happy with; if that’s the case, then it deserves the high score.’

However, she noted that many of these wines were quite closed up at the moment. ‘We were probably underscoring some of the biggest names, as they will be the ones with most structure and therefore the most closed now,’ she explained. ‘There are some which are ready to drink, but the majority still need another three or four years as a rule, before they’re totally ready – and there are definitely wines that will age and improve with another 10, 15 or 20 years in bottle.’

In terms of the styles on offer, Triptree noted: ‘There are some really exotic, fruit-forward, exuberant, opulent styles here and there are also the more elegant, restrained styles; so it pays to read the tasting notes.’ Howard found a few wines that were ‘raisined and lacked freshness’ – which ‘was to be expected given the hot vintage conditions’, noted Anson.

‘As a general rule I prefer the 2016s,’ concluded Howard. ‘But maybe, with a bit more age… I did enjoy these far more than I expected.’

The presence of Cabernet Sauvignon in some wines divided opinion. Howard was ‘still not totally convinced about its use on the Right Bank’, while Triptree felt it ‘set some wines apart, with a pleasant, leafy herbaceousness’.

As for availability, Anson said: ‘If you didn’t buy these wines at the time, during en primeur, you can get them now without paying a huge premium, as I don’t think prices have gone up that much’. Triptree added: ‘2015 is a superb vintage. Buy and drink these for enjoyment, not investment, because you’re going to get great wines that are really top-notch.’

Discussion copy by Georgie Hindle.

See all wines from the panel tasting here

The scores

111 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 8

Highly Recommended 57

Recommended 37

Commended 4

Fair 3

Poor 2

Faulty 0

About St-Emilion and Pomerol 2015

The 2015 vintage offered good quality and quantity, after ideal growing conditions. Jane Anson reviews the successes and explores the differences between these two Right Bank appellations.

Seeing how two major appellations in a major vintage are getting on after five years will always be exciting. 2015 may have been slightly overshadowed by 2016, but there is no question that it is one of the great vintages of the last 20 years, with excellent quality across Bordeaux, and particular successes on the Right Bank.

A sunny and dry year, 2015 saw the University of Bordeaux’s Institute of Vine and Wine Science open its vintage report with the words: ‘We can’t hide our pleasure’. Good quality and quantity, with all five conditions for a successful red vintage met – so a quick and even budbreak and flowering, without too much rain at key points of the season, a long ripening period, and a dry harvest.

There were some spikes of temperature that had to be dealt with, and some blockages in ripening as a result, but overall this is a vintage that is built to last.

A big, concentrated vintage like 2015, however, means that many wines are closed down right now, especially in the longer-living appellations: something we had to contend with in this tasting. Don’t be surprised if the second wines are tasting better than the first at this stage – these wines are in it for the marathon, not the sprint.

Same but different

St-Emilion and Pomerol are the two major Right Bank appellations, both found close to the town of Libourne and the Dordogne river; both producing some of Bordeaux’s most sought-after wines.

And yet they have extremely different personalities. Pomerol, at least in theory, is the most egalitarian of the big appellations, with no classification, and a high number of owner-occupiers running family estates that are often just 1ha or 2ha in size (the average is 5.8ha, skewed by a couple of the bigger châteaux).

St-Emilion & Pomerol: Know your vintages

2019: Heatwaves in June and July saw some blockages, with a cooler August and a mainly dry September, though rain came at the end of the month. A good year with some exceptional wines.

2018: As with 2016, rain marked the early part of the year, followed by a long, hot summer that saw many brilliant wines, but alcohol levels climbing high.

2017: The big story of 2017 was the frost at the end of April that reduced the crop, particularly on the Right Bank, but it was not the easiest vintage anyway because of rain in early September. There were some great wines made, but lighter-framed than usual.

2016: Heavy rains in the first part of the year, followed by a beautifully warm, dry finish, with 53% less rainfall than usual from July until the end of September. This meant long, slow ripening, with natural richness and concentration. The wines should age for decades.

2014: Generally more successful in the northern Médoc than elsewhere, but there are high-quality wines on both banks, when the grapes were able to reach maturity. Wines lack the depth of concentration of the best vintages, but there are plenty of great examples to be found for medium-term drinking.

St-Emilion & Pomerol: The facts

St-Emilion

Area under vine: 5,300ha

Bottles per year: 30 million

Number of producers: 678

Soils: Limestone, clay, sand

Permitted grapes: 79% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon; Malbec, Carmenère, Petit Verdot

Price/ha: €200,000 to €2.6million (2017)

Pomerol

Area under vine: 800ha

Bottles per year: 4.2 million

Number of producers: 135

Soils: Clay, gravel, sand

Permitted grapes: 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; Petit Verdot, Malbec

Price/ha: €1.5million (2017)

In St-Emilion, the average size is closer to 8ha, and the wines are more strictly delineated. The last classification in 2012 ranked 82 châteaux in total as either grand cru classé (64 estates) or premier grand cru classé (A or B, 18 estates in all), giving consumers a signpost towards the best quality properties, but making for a more rigid system along the way.

Taste profiles also differ between the two appellations, largely as a result of soils, which tend to be early ripening in Pomerol and later ripening in St-Emilion. As a (frequently broken) rule, Pomerol is all about flesh and seduction; St-Emilion more about elegance and glamour.

See the top scoring St-Emilion and Pomerol 2015

Wines scoring 91pts and above

See all wines from the tasting here

The judges

Jane Anson

Anson is a Decanter contributing editor and the DWWA Regional Chair for Bordeaux. She lives in the region and has written books including Inside Bordeaux (£60, BB&R Press, April 2020), an in-depth study of the region, and Bordeaux Legends (Abrams 2013), a history of the 1855 first growth wines.

Andy Howard MW

Howard is a Decanter contributing editor and Decanter World Wine Awards judge. Having become a Master of Wine in 2011, he now runs his own consultancy business, Vinetrades Ltd, which focuses on education, investment and wine sourcing. Howard was formerly a wine buyer in the UK retail sector for 30 years.

Tim Triptree MW

Triptree has been a judge at DWWA since 2017. He is the international director of wine and spirits at Christie’s, responsible for the planning and execution of Christie’s wine and spirits auctions internationally. Triptree became a Master of Wine in 2018 and received the Noval Award for the best MW research Paper.

You may also like

Top Bordeaux 2017 wines in the bottle: Right Bank reportTop 20 Bordeaux reds under £20