Branaire, Calon, Canon, Carmes, Feytit, Margaux, Palmer, Pichons, Rauzan
Bordeaux has seen a week of big releases, including many of the stars of the vintage, and there are only a few wines still to come out. Calon-Ségur sits at a high point of St-Estèphe both physically and metaphorically, and is a perennial contender for the title of greatest wine in its appellation. From Pauillac, we had both Pichons, and we found it harder than usual to judge between these two magnificent contenders. In St-Julien, Branaire-Ducru has been pushing its way up the ranks thanks to a combination of vineyard improvements and a new cellar, and we loved the 2023.
In Margaux, Rauzan-Ségla, Palmer and Margaux all share the same prime terroir of Terrasse IV. Palmer has an astonishing sense of energy, Margaux is statuesque and composed. We argued about which was better. Rauzan-Ségla shows the huge benefits of care and investment applied to a great terroir. Down the road in Pessac (though really just on the far side of Bordeaux city) Carmes Haut-Brion is clearly one of the wines of the vintage, its very distinctive aromatic signature married to a lovely texture.
Rauzan-Ségla is under the same ownership as St-Émilion's Canon and Berliquet, and the brilliant Nicolas Audebert manages all three. Canon is a classy, high-wire act. Berliquet comes from different terroir and has an identity all its own, while benefitting from the same investment as behind Canon. We're big fans of the superb and very reasonably-priced Grand Mayne. Pavie Macquin is luscious and complex, and closes on the same sense of salinity we found marked the finish of a lot of 2023 St-Émilions. Feytit-Clinet is one of our favourite family-run Pomerol properties. I'd usually write 'Jeremy Chasseuil's Feytit-Clinet' but in 2023, his sons Adrien and Étienne are jovially claiming it's all down to them. Either way, it's a great success. And we also had the Durantou family wines, from defining Pomerol L`Église-Clinet to brilliant value Castillon property Montlandrie. /NT
Read the full vintage report here
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