Hi guys,
The notes are all here: www.bordeauxwineblog.com
I would like to point out that the blog is totally non-commercial.
Generalizations? I don’t like them, but if someone were to twist my arm - very hard - I might say that I was more impressed with the Right Bank wines.
The Pomerols I tasted were glorious.
Best regards,
Alex R.
Thanks Alex! Very valuable insights. I am looking forward to trying many of them.
That’s a lot of serious time and effort to organize and post notes like that. Thanks Alex.
The Chinese are “back” so prices will be stable…or go up? US Market not a concern? Will the 2015 vintage quality support a $ increase?
You’re correct about buyer confusion, speaking for myself. Why pay for bottles you won’t see for a year or two and need to cellar for several years…when you can backfill the same producer…for less? That’s a hard sell.
Seems like there’re some inexpensive '12s around with '13s and '14s either here or in the pipeline at “reasonable prices” (compared to '09, '10 and '11).
Valandraud for example. Wine Searcher presents 2009 prices at $329+ and 2010 at $270+. 2012 can be had for $114, same for 2014 futures. That huge of a quality drop? I can pick up a bottle of 1996 for $160 or 1999 for $145. Color me confused.
RT
Excellent. Looks like I might be buying some Pomerol, as there appear to be some relatively inexpensive producers making very good wine in 2015. Thanks for the notes
I don’t really understand this kind of statement… The obvious answer would be “because these older vintages are not as good as this new one”. I don’t care if I can buy Chateau X 1993 at 50% of the 2015 if this 1993 is just no good.
If we’re talking about 2005/2009/2010 at the same price then ok, but 2002 or 2004 I would think twice.
Alain
What’s happened to tropolong mondotte?
Port?
Alain, Taking my example (and assuming you or I actually like a “typical” Valandraud)…
Are you telling me that the 2009 Valandraud really is worth:
2.9x the 2012 and/or 2014
2.0x the 1995
2.3x the 1999
The 1995 and 1999 are arguably much more ready to drink. If you are telling me that the value is that much higher for the 2009, why on earth should consumers remain interested in Valandraud with such wildly varying quality levels?
Perhaps Bordeaux is different, but my experience in other regions is that for “lesser vintages”, not all wines are lemons.
RT
Quite contrary. I am pretty sure I like some wines from vintages 2012 and 2014 more than their 2015 counterparts (lack of freshness and balance). But it´s ok to me when many focus on the hyped vintages only. That keeps the other wines affordable. At least most of time. With the exception of 2011 …
I, for one, would much rather spend more money for great vintage over lesser vintages. It is proposterous to look at wine a being 2x more expansive than wine b when it’s only 1.3 times better because as quality increases we get less of a quality increase at the margin. As we go up the greatness scale quality, you pay an exponential amount for every incremental step up in quality.
I am seriously very jealous of those who can find enjoyment from everyday wines that I have become jaded to… 
That being said, I’m looking forward to a very strong vintage, and the success of the campaign will depend on price- that is a dead horse that should continue to be beat.
Blake,
other than you I became jaded of the formula the bigger the better. I drank 04 Clos ´l Elise and Bellevue recently and loved these Right Bank wines due their freshness, ripeness, balance and finesse without heaviness. These wines are not diluted or faulty but 04 is considered as a rather mediocre vintage. I did´t miss anything. Quite contrary. Both are superb or even superior wines if you will. And both are way cheaper than 05 and faster in their evolution so enjoyable earlier. These are not wines for the poor man IMO. They are fantastic in my book.
Gotta get over that vintage hype brother
04?? Taste '04 SHL vs much higher scoring '05
U can thank me later
I agree with Jürgen. The difference between the great vintage and the merely good is, for the most part, the number of very fine wines; you can find excellent wines in nearly every vintage, and in the less notable vintages the very fine wines are cheaper. I would never buy broadly in vintages like 2004, but finding the performers in those vintages means buying and drinking better than in a 2009 or 2010, where the price of wines of equal quality is pushed up by reputation.
Agree with the perspective of Jurgen and Neal.
Frankly, its tiresome to deal with this subset of chateau (i.e. the Cru Classe), that apply elastic pricing in line with quality. And it is not even necessarily quality of their own wines that drive price increases but an external assessment of the overall vintage! I don’t see other regions doing this, not even Burgundy (volume produced seems to be the key driver), certainly not in the Rhone or Piemonte… What i see there is effectively flat pricing across vintages.
And coming back to this topic, for me the marginal increase in quality in a ‘great’ vintage is almost certainly out-weighed by the price increase. In the better vintages my focus would be on the Cru Bourgeois who can take advantage of the vintage to turn out some pretty damn solid, age-worthy claret at a really great QPR, and then buy ‘finer’ wines in the under-rated vintages when the bigger boys don’t feel the need to gouge the consumer…
We look for different things, I just like them to pack more oomph. The freshness will def come around for those bigger vintages when they’re firing on all cylinders, and even though they tear my wallet to shreds I just enjoy that style more. One to look out for is those 12s too. The freshness coming out of those is pretty awesome for value. Not my style, but I smile every time I pop one of those too soon.
G, for petits chatx you should look into 2011, the gentler extractions taken on by a lot of these properties in a less than perfectly phenolically ripe vintage make for some pretty quick evolutions that are starting to come together nicely for classically styled Bdx. For those price points I have been impressed compared to their big brothers.