2019 Wine Travel Log #4: France

Monday, Jan 28, 2019

My two-week trip to France included bouts with flu and a ruptured eardrum, but arriving in Lyon on the final leg (having navigated the icy weather, yellow jackets and the police) my wife Marie and I couldn’t remember a better time filled with discovery and great new releases of wines.

We were sitting in the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the dining room of the Bistro du Lyon, enjoying a hearty meal and a 2015 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Moulin-a-Vent Domaine du Pourpre.

It was a perfect finale to the trip, and gave us time to contemplate the days of tasting and visiting winemakers in France with our team, including senior editors Nick Stock and Stuart Pigott.

james in france
At Louis Jadot where I tasted some incredible 2017 samples.

France can be a magical place full of history, gastronomy and wine. It’s unique and a reference for all of us.

The recent vintages coming on to the market from 2018 Beaujolais to 2017 Burgundy as well as 2016 Bordeaux are going to remind everyone how great French wines are.

2016 Bordeaux  

The trip started on January 13 when we landed in Bordeaux from Rome and headed to our tasting location in the Côte de Bordeaux. Close to 800 bottles of 2016 Bordeaux were waiting for us to review and our three tasting coordinators had already organized the wines by color and appellation. Staring at hundreds of bottles covering the floor and tables can be a daunting experience, but I knew we could get through them all. And we did, finding time to visit more than 40 chateaux and enologists’ tasting rooms too. Meeting winemakers and seeing wineries is always an exciting part of the process for us. It’s the most fun too.

Despite the high levels of tannins and strong acidities in the 2016 reds, the wines were relatively easy to taste with well-defined structure and clean and positive fruit character. The wines from each respective appellation reflected their character and nature from a simple Bordeaux to great appellations such as Pauillac or Pomerol. The 2016 vintage is indeed a top-class year, and after rating more than 1,400 wines I can also confirm that it is homogenous, producing outstanding wines at every level. Whether it is better than the great and slightly riper 2015 will be a matter of debate for a long time – just like 2010 and 2009, 1990 and 1989, and other twin vintages. I will write my review later this week or early next!

We didn’t spend that much time at long dinners or boozy nights as we had too much to do during the day, but we had a lot of fun enjoying local foods and raiding the local wine stores, drinking everything from Muscadet to old Bordeaux. I have found that over the years – it’s been 36 years since I started coming to Bordeaux and rating wines – it’s better to hang at home and have early nights to prep for the next day of tastings. It isn’t always possible but my wife Marie is an amazing cook and there’s plenty of Asian food around too.

  • Olivier Berrouet at Petrus
    Tasting and talking with Olivier Berrouet at Petrus today. Unique young 2016 Bordeaux.
  • Gorgeous winter evening in Lyon.
    Gorgeous winter evening in Lyon.

2017 Burgundy

Our six days in Burgundy were similarly enjoyable. The apartment we rented in Beaune, the center of the wine business there, was walking distance to most restaurants in town so it was hard not to go out every night, even if it was for simple plates of charcuterie, snail and French fries. The older I get the more I yearn for down-to-earth French food with real wines. Burgundy certainly delivers on this, from Beaujolais to grand crus from the Côte d’Or. And prices, if you know the right places, can be the same as retail or less in Hong Kong or even New York.

The vintage we reviewed in Burgundy was 2017 and it was done by mostly visiting wine producers. This is an excellent year, though not as great as 2015, 2016 and the up-and-coming 2018. The 2017 was one of the biggest production years in decades for Burgundy and some of the wines, particularly the reds, are slightly diluted. Yet there are some excellent bottles; the reds are delicate and nuanced and the whites relatively rich, ripe and structured. Nick Stock is going to write up the report for Burgundy but I plan on buying some wines from this vintage as I wait for more structured years in the market. The reds were particularly fun to taste with their beautiful aromas, delicate structure and attractive drinkability. The whites really impressed too, especially the grand crus. And there will be lots of bottles in the marketplace.

2017 & 2018 Beaujolais

I only tasted a few dozen 2018 and 2017 Beaujolais, which is one of my favorite areas in France due to the wines’ wonderful drinkability and great prices. This area also has some of the most beautiful old vines in the country. The 2018 could be another great vintage like 2015 due to the warm and near perfect grape growing conditions. The 2017 also made excellent wines but there were issues in appellations such as Fleurie and Moulin-a-Vent with hail, and the weather was not as consistent as in 2018. Nick and the team will have more to report on this, after they finish rating almost 400 wines.

This week I am back in Hong Kong working on my Bordeaux report. Also still to come: Brunello from our Italian trip during the first part January. It has been a great start to the year and Marie and I feel blessed to have begun it with so many great wines and fond and warm memories.

Merci la France! —  James Suckling, Editor & CEO JamesSuckling.com

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Check out my other wine travel log entries: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3