James tasted nearly 1,050 wines from the Bordeaux 2019 vintage this year.
The 2019 vintage is going to be a vintage we all remember for a long time in Bordeaux. Sure it made fantastic wines, highlighting this new era in which winemakers have returned to the classic style that created their reputation, but with a modern and precise style of viticulture and winemaking. They have zeroed in on what makes their wines different in the world and why many of us still love drinking Bordeaux – wines with breeding, harmony and drinkability, particularly with age.
But the big memory, for better or for worse, is that many people bought wines as en primeur, or futures, during one of the most uncertain periods any of us can remember – and I am older than most of you!
I have written numerous articles on the vintage based on my barrel tastings of 1,044 wines. These were all samples sent to me in Hong Kong from first growths to petite chateaux. It was an extensive tasting and the wines showed wonderfully – as good as anything I have tasted in the past 37 years of barrel tasting. This is a vintage that will easily maintain its excellent quality in the barrel after the next year or so of aging in wood. We will see in the end if it is better than the excellent 2015, 2016 and 2018 – all part of the new paradigm for quality in Bordeaux.
Some may not agree, but I saw the change after 2009 and 2010 when wine producers started harvesting earlier and used less extraction in winemaking and new wood in aging. Many realized that they can’t compete with areas such as Napa Valley in making concentrated wines and that they needed to produce real Bordeaux and not wines in a particular style, for a certain palate, or, for want of a better phrase, “market-driven” bottles.
I put together here a list of my 50 best wines to buy in 2019 in Bordeaux. They are ranked by preference from 1 to 50. I looked at my ratings – I used a range of two points because the wines are unfinished – and then I took into account the wines’ reputation in the market, price, and potential for appreciation in value and quality. By the latter I mean whether it is likely to achieve the high end of the rating range in my review.
With data from the London-based fine wine trading platform Liv-ex, we have also included price information. We show how the price of a wine has changed in the few weeks these 2019 bottles started trading on the futures market, and also how the 2019 prices compare to the prices of the 2018 vintage for the same wine. Most 2019 wines are trading at a significant discount to the 2018 counterpart.
Don’t miss:
TOP 10 BEST VALUE WINES IN 2019 BORDEAUX EN PRIMEUR
- Chateau Haut-Brion produced at least one perfect wine from the 2019 vintage.
- James does a Zoom tasting with Figeac’s Frederic Faye.
- Lafite could have a perfect 100-point wine by the time these are bottled.
My best wine of 2019 with these criteria is Chateau Haut-Brion. I debated whether it should have been Lafite-Rothschild because it should be a perfect wine when I taste it in 2021 in bottle and we know that it will appreciate in value as it is the most sought after Bordeaux in the world – particularly where I live in Hong Kong and China. But I think that Haut-Brion could be the champion of the vintage in the end. The quality is extraordinary and reminds me of the legendary 1989 but with more harmony and precision. I tasted the 1989 Haut-Brion from barrel and many times from bottle and the 2019 compares very favorably.
Haut-Brion’s white wine was the only wine in my tasting of more than a thousand samples that I gave a perfect rating. And I am sure I will stick with that score, but the wine is very hard to find and it costs a small fortune. It’s one of the rarefied collector wines of the world. Mouton and Margaux should also be perfect or at least very close. The wines are already so balanced and beautiful with everything in the right place.
After score, the wines are ordered by pricing combined with my general thoughts on the brand and the quality of the wines, considering the price. I have a few favorites because of their super quality for the money and they include: Chateau Pontet-Canet at no. 11, Chateau Haut-Bailly at no. 17, Chateau Larcis Ducasse at no. 21, Chateau Pavie-Macquin at no. 22, and Chateau Clinet at no. 23. And don’t forget my best value of the vintage: Chateau Malescot-St.-Exupéry at No. 32.
The 2019 vintage created some amazing wines in Bordeaux, so don’t worry if you didn’t buy any en primeur. You can buy the wines after they are bottled and for years after. Just remember that Bordeaux wine lovers are going to remember the en primeur release of 2019 Bordeaux forever.
The Top 50 wines from Bordeaux 2019 En Primeur campaign. (Click to enlarge)
All prices GBP and for a 12-bottle case. Data courtesy Liv-ex.
