2018 Bordeaux

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-21/bordeaux-heading-for-great-classic-vintage-after-dry-summer?srnd=premium

After thinking of adding the usual pithy comments such as “Vintage of the year!” instead reflected on how at age 58 I’ll probably not go for the super seconds et al but how this vintage might possibly be another cru bourgeois bonanza. If I can still find some nice ones that are still traditionally made.

I dont believe this article by bloomberg. All other reports state otherwise. Need other reports to back this up.

Here’s Decanter’s latest story:

And an early report from Izak Litwar:
http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8069

Of course it’s very early yet but it’s being touted as an excellent vintage. With high alcohol levels.

A) typical Bordeaux marketing chatter
B) if the prices are at 2016 levels, forget EP.
C) Great. High alcohol.

Yeah, this is par for the course. The wines are hardly even wine yet.
I’m past buying young Bordeaux, but if I were younger I’d be waiting. Not much advantage in EP.
Alcohol levels will turn some people off. Others will look at it on a case-by-case basis as some wines handle it well.

With the harvesting conditions they have had, they certainly should produce good wines. Whether they will or not is another matter. Bordeaux has been on a learning curve over the last fifteen years, adjusting to new climate conditions which have turned some “expert” advice on its head. If in the past, wines could be better with less leaf coverage, now they need more, likewise with concentration, I would imagine, as well as alcohol levels. Not all Mediterranean wines are 14° or higher: nobody “has” to produce “natural” alcohol levels of 14°5 - just pick the stuff earlier! We will see, but I’m quite optimistic. If the lunatic fringe like Troplong Mondot are getting the idea, so will others.

It ought to be a great CB vintage, but I’m going to focus just as much on the Loire, which should produce an excellent vintage

Depends on when the grapes lose those green flavors that nobody likes. At what level of potential alcohol do the flavors become ripe (not overripe)?

Rolland is in ecstasy! Cambie coming to help!

next year is always better!!!

I guess with the world awash in unsold 14s, 15s, 16s, and 17s, a “vintage of the Century” for 2018 is the only way for Bordeaux to regain some market traction.

Would be nice if they actually dropped prices, If there is so much excess

Great, Bordeaux has a Napa harvest !!! big fruit, high alcohol !!

I might have to check out EP

Serious question as well, if the grapes are this high in alcohol and sweetness to create a bigger wine how does this affect tannins ? will these wines be big but undrinkable for twenty years aka Napa 13 ? or big and softer aka Napa 12/14 ?

2018…high alcohol levels…pass

Gents - we have another vintage of the century.

I stopped buying Bordeaux in larger quantities after the 2000 vintage. Instead I concentrated on Burgundy and Rhones which are far harder available 4+ years after the vintage.

Bordeaux wines - with the exception of a few very small estates on the right bank - are available in huge quantities, usually 100.000 bottles and more …
so they are not “rare” wines. You can buy (almost) all Chateaux back 10, 15, 20+ vintages without a problem, and often at prices not much higher (and often lower) than as futures or right after release.

Sure - it is usually safer to have your own case 2.5 years after the vintage for aging in your own cellar (if the conditions are ok), but

1. even at release bad shipping can happen, and 2) who really stores cases of Bordeaux himself in the own cellar for decades until (early) maturity?
   Often they are stocked away in professional storage (in GB for instance “in bond”) with quite important annual fees … and a friend of mine in GB now has huge headaches regarding the coming Brexit …
   At the present pricing level I see absolute no reason to buy 2017/2018 futures, no matter how “great” a vintage is or should be.

Great! Maybe I will have to reconsider and buy some. As M. Cambie said to me when I said that I had heard that he was the Michel Rolland of Chateauneuf, “Non Non, Monsieur. Michel Rolland is the Phillipe Cambie of Bordeaux.”

That´s a good one !!!

I really hope Cambie will not make the Bonneau-wines in the future (actually I have heared a rumour in that direction …)