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2016 Bordeaux – Re-visited at 10 Years Old
After immersing myself in 150ish examples of the best of Bordeaux 2016 earlier this month, I’m convinced that this vintage is the real deal.
Along with the rest of the wine trade, I’ve been banging the 2016 drum since April 2017, before the wines had even been bottled. The vintage sold well, and all the early indicators have confirmed we have something special on our hands but it is only now, with a decade on the clock, that the wines are starting to show their true colours and reveal something of their full potential.
Cool, classical and sophisticated, 2016 is neither a fruit bomb nor a powerhouse. It makes me think of one of the top vintages of the 1980s interpreted using 21st century technique. One of the best summaries came from one of my fellow taster “2010 but with less alcohol.” To extend that analogy, 2016 delivers on all the promises that 2010 failed to fulfil: 2016 has lower alcohol, has benefitted from better tannin management, and is simply less extreme and easier to love. Bordeaux’s 2016s have a degree of balance and finesse to which only very few from 2010 can aspire – and I say that as an avowed fan of 2010.
2016’s sweet spot is clearly the northern Medoc. In fact, a flight of 12 Saint Julien delivered a near pitch-perfect performance to which I gave five wines – more than 40% of the total – scores of 95/100 and up.
However, zoom out from the northern Medoc, and I remember how much I enjoyed the Pessac Leognan wines. Hang on a minute, and those blissful top Pomerols. Oh, and I absolutely fell for Yquem, de Fargues and Suduiraut on the first afternoon. It would also be a mistake to forget that Saint Estephe Cru Bourgeois that found a place in my top 10, alongside Mouton-Rothchild. And, of course, I had Lynch Bages edging out the 1st growths for my top score.
You get the picture. 2016 is a year in which fine Bordeaux can be found throughout the region, rather than offering isolated high points. Neither is quality concentrated solely amongst the upper echelons and most expensive wines; there are high grade 2nd wines, 5th growths challenging 1st growths and stand-out Cru Bourgeois.
2016 may not be a perfect vintage but such a thing does not exist. 1982 was not perfect and neither was 1961 or 2009. What 2016 does deliver is quality spread to the four points of the compass and both up and down the quality hierarchy and that, in my book, qualifies it as a great vintage.
The tasting followed our tried and tested format. 21 of us, including 11 MWs, blind taste peer group flights, of usually a dozen wines at a time. Wines were scored out of 20 – although I also record my own scores out of 100 – and we discuss each flight after tasting, before revealing the wines. The group includes representatives of the most important Bordeaux merchants and traders in the UK as well as wine writers Neal Martin and Jancis Robinson.
Saint Emilion
Three of my favourite 2016s came from Saint Emilion: Chateaux Figeac (98/100), Belair-Monange and Tertre Roteboeuf (both 97/100). However, whilst those three mean Saint Emilion represents nearly 30% of my top-scoring wines, overall, the commune was the weakest link in our 2016 tasting.
The three wines I mentioned are all iconic for their quality and very singular expressions of Saint Emilion. Tertre Roteboeuf is utterly distinctive in blind tastings as it marches to the beat of Francois Mitjavile’s own stylistic drum. Both Belair-Monange and Figeac are archetypes of Saint Emilion’s limestone terroir, and the latter uses an unusually high proportion of Cabernet to shape its highly individual wines. I would add both Canon and Cheval Blanc to the list of 2016 successes.
2016 predates the renaissance currently underway in Saint Emilion, spearheaded by the likes of Troplong Mondot. Effectively, this was the final year of the Parker hangover, where biggest was best, in some minds. The result was late-picked and over-extracted wines, to which too much oak was applied, that are hard work to taste and from which any sense of place has been obliterated. At 10 years old these wines are cracking up, their fruit is fading and they are becoming threadbare. In a vintage of freshness and vibrancy there were too many porty wines with oxidative flavours and brutal structures – what a relief that the fashion for these wines and winemaking techniques is now in our rear-view mirror.
Pomerol
The smaller commune and smaller chateaux of Pomerol never followed Saint Emilion down the same body-building path, and this showed in our tasting with one of the most thrilling line-ups of the vintage.
Vieux Chateau Certan (99/100) is one of my wines of the vintage, with Lafleur and L’Eglise Clinet (both 97/100) snapping at its heels. Looking at that trio, it is tempting to draw a conclusion about the superiority of Cabernet Franc-influenced Pomerols in 2016; until Petrus, Le Pin and Trotanoy show up to demonstrate what the combination of Merlot, great terroir and winemaking aplomb was able to achieve.
I was out on a limb in my enthusiasm for Hosanna but am sticking to my guns: the 15% Cabernet Franc sings through with a perfume of violets and pepper leading to a sleek, mineral Pomerol of spice and finesse (96/100).
Pomerol is a showcase of 2016’s class.
Pessac Leognan
Outside of the blue chip names it is not inaccurate to say that Pessac makes wines for die hard traditionalists. This is not Bordeaux that flatters in a blind tasting. Rather, it is dry, savoury and structured wine that really needs a dinner table context to be best appreciated.
I really enjoyed the vigour and freshness of these wines, they are bracing and toothsome with an almost audible crunch to the tannin. My favourite was Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte (95/100), which is always one of the glossier and more outgoing Pessacs, although the group as a whole put Les Carmes Haut Brion in first place.
It is worth noting that, in contrast to 2022, the Haut Brion wines have very elevated alcohol in 2016. I recently wrote here about the impressive freshness of La Mission Haut Brion in the outwardly solar 2022 vintage; in 2016, I felt it was a potentially brilliant wine, just knocked off balance by its alcohol.
Pessac Leognan is not where you go for show ponies but, if you seek traditionally-styled mid-weight Bordeaux to cellar with confidence, then 2016 presents a wealth of options and many of them are bargains.
Margaux
The large area covered by Margaux sometimes leads to inconsistency in the commune’s wines and, to some extent, that is the case in 2016. There were several wines showing levels of Brettanomyces, and some with coarse and even rustic tannins, but the underlying quality of 2016 shone through in the best wines.
For the group, Chateau Margaux took the top spot, coming in a nose ahead of Palmer. Personally, I had the two level-pegging on 94/100, and both were just edged out by Brane Cantenac at 95/100. Whilst I found 2016 Margaux exquisitely pretty, Brane had a deeply savoury and saline minerality, allied to fruit of crystalline purity, that made it profound.
Again, it is important that Margaux’s quality is not restricted to the most expensive wines. As a case in point, despite its 2nd growth status, Brane Cantenac is significantly less expensive than Chateau Palmer, or even Rauzan Segla. The latter’s 2nd wine, Segla, is one of the very best examples of that category and out-guns many a Grand Vin in 2016. Segla is a wine to consider purchasing on release – it is not sold en primeur but only once bottled – as it drinks so well young that much is consumed relatively early and finding mature vintages becomes trickier.
Saint Julien
2016 is nothing short of a triumph in Saint Julien. There is an effortless balance and class to these wines that is perhaps the quintessence of fine Bordeaux. When I tasted the 2022s in January, my criticism of Saint Julien was that the wines were missing a clear stamp of identity. In 2016, they couldn’t be from anywhere else.
Leoville Poyferre was the best wine and I particularly admired the way it kicked up and got better and better in the glass. I am not usually a fan of Las Cases, but loved the texture of the 2016 that combined both creamy and velvety qualities. I promise I don’t usually write like this but my verbatim note describes it as, “Like a sexed-up Barton but not flamboyant enough to be Poyferre.” I guess I got the Leoville bit right!
My tip for Saint Julien has to be Langoa Barton (96/100), that I had a point above Leoville Barton and which finished ahead of its sibling for the group. A wine of spell-binding definition and clarity, with a gorgeous finish, Langoa is a wine of exquisite poise (and impressive value).
Pauillac
Discussion of 2016 Pauillac is always going to be dominated by the appellation’s big guns so I am going to state from the beginning: Reserve de la Comtesse (94/100) does not deserve to be forgotten in the clamour for the top wines, it deserves to be bought because it’s brilliant.
2016 is an outstanding vintage for Haut Batailley, which is a wine that was made by Xavier Borie (of Grand Puy Lacoste) before the sale to the Cazes family (of Lynch Bages), who oversaw its maturation in barrel and bottling. It is an archetypal Pauillac that out-paces many more expensive chateaux.
A beautifully fragrant, expressive and lifted wine, Mouton-Rothschild is my pick of the 2016 1st growths, although I also loved the distinctive red fruit and elegance of Lafite. However, for me, the magic really kicks in with Lynch Bages and Pichon Baron. Both are beautifully compact and focused wines, with great purity and sophistication, and not a hair out of place. I rated Lynch Bages 99/100 and Pichon Baron 98/100 but, in a tasting where the group scores wines out of 20, Lynch Bages was the only wine for which I pulled out a 20/20. It was also the group’s #1 wine of the vintage.
Saint Estephe
Chateau Montrose has been making 1st growth level wines since at least 2009 so it was no surprise to see the 2016 take the top spot. For me, the calling card of Montrose is the soaring tannin and minerality that takes off on the mid-palate and then hits the after burners; this is absolutely the case in this 97/100 2016.
What did surprise me – and all of us – was the jaw-dropping quality of Chateau Les Ormes de Pez, that had the audacity to finish in our overall top 10 and that I scored 96/100. This is the Cru Bourgeois out-performer I mentioned in my introduction and, whilst we have become used to seeing Chateau Meyney challenge the commune’s big names, 2016 must be the best ever vintage of Ormes de Pez.
The Cazes family, of Lynch Bages, also own Ormes de Pez. As mentioned previously, they also acquired Haut Batailley after the 2016 harvest and were responsible for the elevage of that wine, too. This is clearly a phenomenal year for the Cazes wines.
Conclusions
The one thing that continues to niggle me about 2016 is whether I am actually underestimating the quality. And I know there are people who are going to read this and immediately message me with variations on, “I’ve been telling you that for years!”
I’m sure I deserve it.
10 years old is a tricky time to assess Bordeaux of the highest quality. The wines are neither young, nor mature; frequently they are at an awkward stage and shut down to a greater or lesser degree. 2016, with its classical profile and structure, feels like just the sort of vintage to go through this introverted period.
Whilst there is no doubting the extraordinary quality of wines such as Lynch Bages, Pichon Baron, Brane Cantenac, Langoa Barton or, indeed, Les Ormes de Pez, my question marks revolve around the 1st growths. Is Lynch Bages really, truly and objectively better than Mouton, Latour, et al? Today, it is, but I would not be at all surprised if the likes of Latour and Lafite were to wake from their slumber, floor the accelerator and motor past their rivals. Should this happen, and we find ourselves with a vintage of front rank 1st growths, I believe 2016’s reputation will rise even higher into the stratosphere.
As I wrote in the introduction to this report, there is no such thing as a perfect Bordeaux vintage but there are great years. Whatever happens in the future as the 1st growths continue to evolve. 2016 is clearly a very, very great year that belongs in the front rank of Bordeaux vintages.