Tasting Report: Bordeaux 2014 Final Thoughts
Tasting at Domaine de Chevalier
The 2014 vintage in Bordeaux is a Left Bank year despite a number of successes on the Right Bank. I spent close to two weeks in Bordeaux tasting more than 700 wines and visiting almost 50 wine estates, not to mention speaking to dozens of winemakers and wine merchants. (A complete list of more than 700 wines tasted by me during the en primeur campaign can be viewed here by score and here by name.)
The bottom line is that I view 2014 as a split vintage whereby the Left Bank made truly superb wines while the Right Bank made many very good to outstanding wines but remained inconsistent. It's almost as if we're talking about two different vintages for each bank. It was the same in 1996 when again the Left Bank was better than the Right Bank, or in 1998 when conversely the Right Bank was better than the Left Bank.
In 2014, the Left Bank, particularly the Haut-Médoc appellations of St. Julien, Pauillac and St. Estèphe, made terrific wines similar to excellent 1996s but with modern fruit and precision. These are the wines to focus on in 2014 – albeit with a few exceptions.
I've already posted two articles on 2014 Bordeaux – one with my first impressions on the vintage and another noting that the Right Bank was not a washout. However, in the end, it was the Left Bank that excelled in 2014 due to the ability of the region to counter the effects of an extremely wet July and August as well as benefit from the long and mostly sunny months of September and October.
The Right Bank was uneven in quality except in the case of mostly the top estates on the clay knoll of Pomerol such as Lafleur, Pétrus and Vieux Château Certan, in addition to St. Emilion's limestone slopes shared by Ausone, Canon and Angélus as well as Trottevielle, Troplong Mondot and L'If. Limestone also helped lesser appellations such as Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux with the difficult growing season.
In addition, some wines suffered slightly from over-extraction during fermentation, particularly small-barrel fermentation. These early setbacks may come around through cellaring, but it will be interesting to see what these wines will taste like in bottle in 2017.
2014 L'if is a beauty.
The dry and sweet whites were excellent. It's amazing to see 2014 added to a range of wonderful vintages including 2011, 2010, 2009, 2005, 2003 and 2001. It's time to rally around the greatness of white Bordeaux that easily rivals or betters most of the best of Burgundy – and there are no problems with oxidation.
Please remember that all my ratings are listed as two-point ranges and are not final scores. They are based on barrel samples furnished by about 700 châteaux, which means they are young, unstable wines and should be viewed only as an indication of final quality.
At this point, there's little use in commenting on prices for 2014 or whether consumers should buy en primeur. The market will ultimately decide. Yet it remains important that the top châteaux of Bordeaux remain prudent in their pricing. Increases from 2013 are going to be bad PR. And bad public relations is the last thing Bordeaux needs in the marketplace, particularly in the United States, Hong Kong and China where currencies are now strong against the Euro and where buyers may want to purchase 2014 after essentially staying out of the market for three vintages.
The below notes are all the remaining notes that have not previously been published. Again, for a full list of scores please see the links above.
A few bullet points on the 2014 Bordeaux vintage:
* Left Bank Vintage. Best areas are in the Haut-Mêdoc: St. Julien, Pauillac & St. Estèphe.
* Cabernet vintage, especially cabernet sauvignon but cabernet franc as well.
* Excellent Pessac-Léognan red and whites
* Few dozen great Right Bank wines but from only classic, high-ranked estates
* Excellent whites – dry and sweet. Top names superb.
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