En Primeur 2023 (Part I): A Return to Bordeaux

I might buy some 2023 Bordeaux en primeur if the price is right but it’s difficult to know what others will do, particularly the wine trade.

So far, I have tasted more than 900 barrel samples of 2023 Bordeaux with my team over the last 10 days in the region, and the best reds show balance and freshness with deep center palates of ripe fruit and a complement of polished tannins. In many ways, I like them better than many of the highly touted 2022s because they are so Bordeaux in their nature with their tensioned mouthfeels and energetic finishes. Many 2022s are very powerful and rich, highlighting the extremely hot and dry grape-growing conditions of the vintage. Some are almost international in their essence.

“It was getting a little tiring with years that were always sunny,” admitted Alexandre Thienpont, one of the owners and winemakers of Vieux Chateau Certan, who also helps make wine alongside his son Guillaume at Le Pin, the famous small wine estate in Pomerol. “With 2023, we returned to Bordeaux. They have the signature of Bordeaux. They make you salivate when you taste them.”

LE PIN WINEMAKER GUILLAUME THIENPONT ON 2023

Pierre-Olivier Clouet, managing director of Cheval Blanc, said the fresh and subtle 2023 "is much more Cheval Blanc," than 2022, which produced more opulent wines. "As a technician, for sure I prefer 2023 more."

Noemie Durantou Reilhac, the head of Chateau L'Eglise Clinet, says her 2023 is simply a “more emotional wine” and one she wished she could taste with her late father, Denis Durantou.

“2023 is less evident,” she added. “It gives a lot of surprises. 2022 is more a ‘bon bon bon.’ It’s really fruity. 2023 has much more complexity. But it is really a question of taste. 2022 is great but I like 2023 more.”

Tasting hundreds of young wines highlights that the vintage was not an across-the-board home run for all appellations or wineries. Smaller wine estates in lesser-known regions seemed to struggle to make really outstanding wines, but they are just a small step down in quality compared with 2022 due to less density of fruit and structure as well as length. Top terroirs and top winemakers delivered terrific-quality wines, but they are different than 2022. I would compare these 2023s to 2019 or 2001 – even 1990 – for their freshness and balance of ripe fruit.

BRIGHT AND LIVELY REDS

Dry whites are excellent quality in 2023 and perhaps better than 2022 in many instances but I have not evaluated some star whites, such as Haut-Brion and La Mission. Sauternes and Barsac appear to have made outstanding sweet wines again.

To my taste, some of the 2023 reds have remarkable structure because of their lower alcohols – up to one degree alcohol less than 2022 – and vibrant acidities. Some of my favorite wines, so far, have pHs of 3.5 or even less, making them some of the brightest and liveliest red Bordeaux I have tasted in years. Names like Canon, Pavie and Pavie-Macquin take structure and intensity to another level thanks to their limestone-rich terroirs. Pavie is clearly making a shift in style.

“It’s limestone, limestone, limestone in 2023,” said Julien Barthe, one of the owners of the St. Emilion estate Beau-Sejour Becot. He said the limestone soils of his property helped the vines remain fresh and vigorous during moments of heat and dryness in growing season. And the microbial flora of their unique soils gave a salt character to the young reds.

My top-scoring wines so far are all from the Right Bank, particularly St. Emilion. Cheval Blanc, Canon, Le Pin, Pavie, and Pavie-Macquin are my best right now – even some that were not produced from vineyards planted in limestone soils. I have not tasted a number of other wines from the region, such as those from the revered names of Ausone, Lafleur and Petrus, but I wanted to post my scores now for Right Bank wines with this report to give you an idea of 2023. Expect to read next week about Left Bank wines as well as others not included in this report.

In total, we should rate about 1,200 2023 en primeur this year.

The transparency in the wines is definitely a feature in 2023. This is both good and bad in that you can discern great terroir and precise winemaking, but you can also see less-than-pristine viticulture and cellar work in bottles even at this early stage. Some wines definitely lack form and depth because of overproduction. Some are also overextracted. But I didn’t taste many unripe wines, even from small producers in less popular subregions. The highly publicized bout with mildew in the vineyards in June and July didn’t affect all wine producers, particularly those with the means to properly treat the vineyard disease. This didn’t affect quality.

NICOLAS AUDEBERT ON MAKING THE 2023 CHATEAU CANON

BEAU-SEJOUR BECOT'S LIMESTONE CHARACTER

In fact, the flowering was very good at the end of May, resulting in excellent berry set and a generous grape crop in many places. Figures from the government for production in 2023 showed a significant increase in yields (with volume measured in hectoliters) in the Medoc compared with the Right Bank.

Rainfall was relatively low in July and August, and it was hot and dry with few heat spikes except in the third week of August. The first part of September had rain, but not too much, and it was dry for most of the month. Growers who waited to pick had the best results. Many wine producers spoke about an Indian summer that saved the vintage.

With excellent wines in their cellars, winemakers are now pondering what to do about their pricing. I met about 60 of them during two weeks in the region. Everyone seemed to be in agreement that they need to reduce prices for 2023, and most of the top names are coming out early, beginning at the end of this month. A few have already released some.

“It has to be done, of course,” Edouard Moueix said during a tasting of 2023s at his new modernistic winery at Belair-Monange. “We already released our entry-level wines and we dropped the prices 10 to 15 percent. Our top wines will be 20 percent lower than last year. We will release them just before VinExpo in Hong Kong.”

“People are not going to buy if you don’t drop the price,” concurred Hubert de Bouard, whose family owns Chateau Angelus, which last year raised its prices significantly with some backlash from the market. “You can’t go against the wave. If you don’t [drop prices] you can’t sell. It could be 20 percent or more, but it depends on the name of the chateau.”

It’s not going to be easy to drop prices to a level that will generate interest in the vintage for en primeur. The market situation is very tough, as any wine merchant knows regardless of where they are based. For a start, the cost of money from banks is the highest in decades in the United States, and wine sales are down in most key markets around the world. There are overstocks with importers, distributors and wine merchants. And prices are falling for many top wines. And then there are two wars and an anxiety-ridden U.S. election in November. It will be difficult for many buyers to tie up money, especially if it’s credit from the bank, for almost two years before the wine is delivered.

Yet, there’s already something very attractive about the 2023 that might lead them to buy if prices go down. I am certainly considering it, and I am sure others are, too.

[This is the first of a two-part series on the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux; stay turned for more content and wine ratings on April 22.]

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman

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