Weekly Tasting Report (Dec 31-Jan 10): 2018 Bordeaux, 2018 Napa

The first Weekly Tasting Report of 2020 includes reviews of 454 wines from my office in Hong Kong with most being 2018 Bordeaux and mixed wines from California with various other bottles rated from Australia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Hungary and even Switzerland.

The 2018 vintage is looking golden in both Bordeaux and Napa producing many outstanding quality wines. I am impressed with the beauty and relative drinkability of the 2018 Bordeaux after tasting slightly more than 200 wines so far. I have close to 1,000 to rate in the coming weeks . The balance of fruit to the powerful tannins in the 2018s is impressive and something I noted when I rated the wines from barrel in Spring 2019. The quality of the wines is excellent despite the rather treacherous grape growing season.

"The 2018 is a big wine, but I am impressed by the balance and the softness," said Veronique Sanders, the head of Chateau Haut-Bailly, which produced one of its greatest wines ever in 2018. "The quality of the tannins of 2018, we can be very proud of - they are incredibly silky and super elegant." Check out the Zoom interview I did with her from last week below.

Meanwhile, the 2018 reds from Napa show fantastic finesse and brilliance for young wines from the valley with vivid and complex aromas and polished and flavorful palates. The fineness and beautiful texture of the cabernets in 2018 in Napa are extremely memorable. Stay tuned for a report with more than 840 Napa wines rated later this week.

“You really see the length and the fineness of the tannins,” said Rebekah Wineburg, winemaker of Napa’s Quintessa that made its best wine ever in 2018 with its Quintessa Napa Valley Rutherford 2018. Check out my Zoom video with Quintessa from last week here too.

“It was an incredibly even and it was such a long harvest season,” she added. “There weren’t any of those heat waves. It was almost the opposite of 2017. It’s atypical for Napa to make all those harvest decisions when you want to make them.”

The above was also in important factor in the super quality of the Peter Michael Sonoma chardonnays in 2018, including the Belle-Cote, La Carriere and Mon Plaisir. I did a Zoom call last week with their team and they also emphasized the importance of being able to make harvesting decisions at just the right time to produce great whites that are the same level or better than their fabulous 2017s. The Peter Michael Winery Chardonnay Sonoma County Knights Valley Belle-Cote 2017 was our American Wine of the Year in 2020. Yet Peter Michael’s 2017 whites have a little more definition and acidity than their 2017s.

The long growing season and ease of harvest was the key factor for quality in 2018 for Napa and other California winemakers. And it produced so many outstanding quality wines. But it was not an entirely positive vintage, which is why some producers did better than others. Read more later.

There are plenty of exciting wines in this report, from energized 2018 Bordeaux to rich yet fresh 2018 Sonoma chardonnays or even esoteric Swiss whites. You are going to find something to like here.

- James Suckling, editor

The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Click here to see the full Zoom post.

Click here to see the full Zoom post.