Bordeaux's 2016 vintage: Revisiting & retasting 10 years on

As so often happens in Bordeaux, great vintages come in pairs.

Just a year on from appraising the finest wines of 2015, we are now examining the very best of 2016.

In similar fashion to 2009/2010, 1995/1996, 1989/1990, 1985/1986 and, although separated by an abysmal vintage, the otherworldly 1959/1961, so often these legendary pairs are qualitative peers but stylistically polar. That is also true with 2015 and 2016.

While the rhetoric of my equivalent article in last year’s Bordeaux guide was based on the famous ‘rule of fives’ (years ending in ‘5’ are reputed always to produce good quality in Bordeaux), 2016 has been proposed by many as ‘the greatest global wine vintage ever’.

We are certainly not here to examine that claim, but we are here to surmise where it might sit among the pantheon of the finest vintages ever produced in Bordeaux.

The growing season

The 2016 vintage was marked by a particularly long hang time (relatively slow, extended ripening season) that led to much better phenolic ripeness of flavour compounds and tannins in the grape skins, seeds and stems.

Although the winter had been cold and wet, the summer was hot and dry, and critically it had a much higher average number of sunshine hours, but without the mercury tipping off the scale.

September saw rain arrive at the optimum moment, before an Indian summer, allowing the grapes to mature both slowly and fully.

At some châteaux, harvest didn’t begin until October – a real rarity these days – and this was crucial to the harvest’s success.

Market performance

Although the 2016 en primeur campaign (in spring 2017) was an incredibly successful one for most UK merchants, the price performance has been modest since.

Merchant Bordeaux Index reports that what could broadly be considered the ‘top 20 wines of the vintage’ have increased, on average, just 1% (excluding storage) against a broad selection of (non-vinous) commodities that have seen growth of closer to 50% in that period.

There are exceptions, though, of course.

Up to late-March 2026 (according to Bordeaux Index’s LiveTrade platform), Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion is the best price performer, at 72% up from its primeurs release.

In terms of ‘super seconds’ (top-rated wines among the second growth to fifth growth estates), châteaux Pichon Comtesse, Montrose and Beychevelle have seen rises of 48%, 38% and 24% respectively.

At the other end of the scale, with Châteaux Pavie and La Mission Haut-Brion being the biggest fallers once again, we are no closer to addressing the question we posed last year: ‘Does an estate’s classification affect the price?’

In the case of relatively newly promoted Pavie, these continued price falls suggest the market is unwilling to pay its ambitious release prices.

Conversely, a fall in the price of Château La Mission Haut-Brion – trading at almost half the price of neighbouring Pessac-Léognan first growth Château Haut-Brion – would appear to indicate that the 1855 classification is more relevant than ever, despite the two now being very much qualitative peers.

Standout appellations

While this could be a relatively futile exercise in this tasting, if I were forced to pick just two communes that performed particularly well in 2016, I would suggest Pomerol and Margaux.

St-Estèphe would run a close third; however, the former two showed not necessarily the very apex of the tasting, but a higher median quality than in other vintages, with some wonderful surprises further down the classification ranking.

See more of Gareth Birchley's revised notes and recommendations from Bordeaux's 2016 vintage

Testing impressions

So, what do the wines taste like today?

Unlike its predecessor, there is far less opulence in these wines. They are, generally speaking, linear, precise, occasionally backward in terms of their development, but impeccably balanced.

Across the board the tannins are fine and beginning to integrate perfectly, leaving silky, pure wines that will be incredibly long lived.

I would suggest that, at 10 years old, there are only a handful that are beginning to show signs of marked evolution and therefore ‘drinkability’ for those seeking claret with full maturity.

The best examples will evolve at a glacial place and, dare I say it, under perfect storage conditions, still provide pleasure close to their 100th birthday.

I say that not based upon huge tannin structure that needs to be resolved over decades, but due to the wines’ sublime balance, which will mean, for the most part, 2016 will drink well every day of its life.

Birchley’s pick: 25 Bordeaux 2016s, 10 years on

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