Understanding Pauillac through the 2015 vintage

Jane Anson revisits the 'hugely acclaimed' 2015 vintage in Pauillac, tasting a total of 32 wines, both grand vins and their second labels...

Pauillac is a name that towers over the Left Bank of Bordeaux. It contains some of the most highly priced vineyard land in the world – good luck finding pretty much anything below €1 million per hectare, with the average now closer to €2 million, the highest in Bordeaux.

Its 1,213 hectares cover just 7.5% of the vineyards on the peninsula but contain 18 classified growths from 1855, and three first growths – more than any other appellation.

But even here, in this most hallowed of grounds, there are plenty of differences in style. For a start, although there are an abundance of gravel soils, mainly set on outcrops that range from 3m to 30m in height, there are also pockets of sand, clay and even limestone.

Scroll down for Jane’s Pauillac 2015 tasting notes & scores

And then there is the fact that Pauillac is split into two distinct zones between north and south, with deep well-draining gravels in the northern section and more clay alongside the gravel in the southern part.Just look at the difference between Lafite Rothschild and Latour if you want to understand what this means – Lafite (in the north) all elegance and Latour (in the southern stretches towards St Julien) all power. The different soil types also help explain why you have, for example, 80% Merlot at Prélude à Grand-Puy-Ducasse compared to 85% Cabernet Sauvignon at Bellevue-Cardon.It’s why doing a horizontal tasting from across the entire appellation is so instructive – and particularly fascinating to do it from the 2015 vintage, which was hugely acclaimed across Bordeaux but which had more challenges up in this northern sector of the Médoc than it did on the Right Bank.Among the challenges were patches of heavy rainfall at the end of August that led to some swelling of berries and dilution, particularly in the Merlots (Pauillac saw almost 100mm over August, compared to just over 70mm in St Emilion). In September it was St Estèphe that saw the most rain, with 118mm against the average across the region of 35mm, with Pauillac’s proximity meaning that the northern sector in particular was also affected and meant there was a little more pressure to pick here than the rest of Bordeaux.

The estates with the best terroir – in Pauillac this means well-drained gravels, and almost always closest to the river – have a natural advantage when dealing with any challenging conditions, something that is even more true when budgets are generous. To get a real overview of how a specific appellation has done, the best way is to look at a wider selection at all pricing levels.

This tasting, which was held in St Estèphe a few weeks ago, included first and second wines from both classified and non-classified properties, 32 wines in total. As there are 33 independent winemakers in the appellation, this is an extremely comprehensive showing, taking into account nine of the bottles tasted are second labels, and one here is from the cooperative cellar La Rose Pauillac.

It showed that the vintage in Pauillac was certainly more mixed than the general reputation of 2015 would suggest. The 2015 second wines in particular offer plenty of opportunity to begin drinking soon, far sooner, for example, than the 2016 second wines are likely to be ready. There were some clear highlights in this category – I would put Griffons de Pichon Baron right up there with a score that beat many grand vins – but also some disappointments.

Overall, there are many excellent bottles, and there is no question that 2015 is a great vintage here – it is just not an exceptional one in the way that 2016 is. I was not tasting the first growths, but only scored three wines at 95+, with the highest score going to Pichon Comtesse. This is compared to more than 10 Pauillac wines that scored 95+ with me in 2016.

Seven out of the 32 wines scored below 90 points, which suggests that there is still a majority of bottles that offer plenty to get your teeth into – and some great values in the non-classifieds, including La Fleur Peyrabon, Lagneaux à Pauillac, Bellevue-Cardon et les Sadons. These are wines of great typicity, that show just how beautifully adapted Cabernet Sauvignon is to this part of the world, and how even with challenging conditions, Pauillac delivers.

See all 32 wines tasted

Jane’s 12 top Pauillac 2015 wines from the tasting:

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