Bordeaux En Primeur 2024 Diary: Day 2 & 3

Day 2

Today we really got into the meat and potatoes of Pomerol, taking a deep dive into some of the most exclusive addresses in Bordeaux. Reflecting on it from my hotel room, what strikes me is that it feels as though we tasted as many as half a dozen different vintages, so diverse were the wines. 2024 is not providing a consistent tasting experience, with a coherent vintage style. The various lenses of terroir, grape varieties, winemaking philosophy and style have refracted, magnified and refocused the image of the year captured in different wines.

Chateau La Conseillante walks a tightrope of elegance and cool, mineral-accented finesse. There is a freshness that almost flirts with a herbaceous edge but it pulls it back without crossing the line into anything under-ripe. I thought it was a thrilling wine that had me on the edge of my seat. By contrast, at L’Eglise Clinet, the ripeness and succulence of fruit found throughout the range defied any question of a lighter, cooler vintage. Had we tasted these blind, from Saintem to L’Eglise Clinet itself, I doubt we would be considering a year in which some winemakers struggled against green and unripe characters.

Chateau Lafleur is chiselled, mineral and floral, with the driving intensity of the old vine Bouchet. Perhaps the wine does not have the concentration and impact of a rich vintage like 2022, but there is a focus, length and tension that is compelling. This length can be found echoing through Grand Village 2024, where the tannins seem to have a distinctly Lafleur-esque architecture. Sure, the wines work at entirely different registers, but the common DNA is making itself felt.

There was no Hosanna presented at Jean-Pierre Moueix this morning. The vineyard has a very high water table and the high rainfall of 2024 created such issues that it is not certain if any of the small quantity of wine produced will be commercially released. A tip, however: Chateau La Fleur Petrus is the star of the family portfolio this year, daring to eclipse Trotanoy.

From estates that faced such challenges wine may never be released, to roaring successes; from the mineral reserve of Lafleur, to the flamboyance of le Pin, and the classicism of VCC; 2024 continues to present a complex and heterogenous mosaic of wines. This is a year to buy the wine and not the vintage.

Day 3

Nothing kills the perceived glamour of primeurs tasting than the 0745h start to fill one’s throat with Saint Estephe tannins. Day 3 kicked off in exactly that fashion as we left our hotel early, if not bright, to begin our exploration of the left bank wines.

Luckily, our first stop was Chateau Montrose. Yes, it was about as far as we could get from our hotel in Bordeaux city, but we were rewarded with what seems likely to be one of the wines of the vintage.

There can be little argument that Montrose is performing at 1st growth level these days and the 2024 is no exception. Making no concessions to a lighter vintage, Montrose 2024 delivers the driving charge of tannin and minerality that is a signature of this chateau, married to the floral and scented qualities that have characterised recent vintages. It’s a hugely impressive Saint Estephe that crescendos and builds subtly but insistently until it absolutely fills the palate.

During our first day in the Medoc I heard people confidently state that this is a left bank vintage in which Cabernet is most definitely king. In the same day, I heard plenty of chat that 2024 is truthfully much more of a right bank year…clearly the confusion continues to be the true king!

The wines continued to play out the inconsistencies. Every time we built up a bank of successful wines to support the theory of left bank superiority, we would hit a seam of disappointments to undermine that new-found confidence. It made for perplexing and challenging tasting but, ultimately, having to put that much effort in yields the greatest rewards.

Our day was focused on the northern Medoc and we covered the big three Pauillac 1st growths. From these visits, I would particularly highlight Chateau Clerc Milon, from the Mouton stable. This always used to be a reliable but quite ‘chunky’ Paillac; in 2024, it is finely-woven and harmonious with an almost creamy aspect to the tannins. It feels almost Lafite-esque in profile and style. At the right price, this could be a smart buy.

We also stopped in at Chateau Latour where we tasted the recently released vintages: Pauillac de Latour 2020 (best ever?), Les Forts de Latour 2019 and Chateau Latour 2016.

How easy it would be to declare Latour 2016 the best wine of our 2024 primeurs tastings, whilst taking a self-satisfied swipe at the entire 2024 vintage. It is fair enough in some ways. Lots of critics have rated ’16 Latour a perfect 100/100; it is an outstanding wine from a genuinely great vintage. Tasting at the chateau, I wasn’t convinced it was a totally flawless 3-digits but I still scored it 99/100. And that’s the biggest number I typed into my spreadsheet all week.

But…

I subscribe to the idea of giving a bracketed range of scores to unfinished primeurs samples. Within that, I found 95-97pts for Lafleur, 94-96 for Cheval Blanc, Montrose and La Conseillante, and 93-95 for Palmer and Margaux. Whilst I’m sure I sometimes fail in the attempt, I try very hard to be as objective as I can in my tastings. Rather than rating Rauzan Segla 92-95 for a 2024 wine – where a 2019 would presumably have to measure up to higher standards – I try to work on an absolute scale. Whilst I taste, the question in my mind is constantly, is it REALLY that good (or bad): am I honestly happy declaring that wine xx is 95% perfect, or perhaps it’s only 91? Similarly, with the Rauzan Segla example, I deliberately widened the potential score bracket to accommodate a slight uncertainty over which way it might go: I found quite a high degree of oak and structure in this specific wine, which is as deliberately ‘serious’ as ever, but my feeling is that it has the fruit density and ripeness to balance everything out after elevage; my rating tries to express that small question mark.

My point, after the over lengthy polemic, is that I’m growing increasingly confident that there are some pretty clever wines from 2024. Dismissing the vintage because it is difficult, and because the market is a mess, is lazy and disingenuous. I cannot see that anyone who enjoys wine is ever going to complain about having a bottle of VCC on the table or a case of Brane Cantenac in the cellar.

I have a clear memory of the legendary Australian wine judge Len Evans barking at a room of students, “Are you wine lovers or wine haters?” On day 3 of our 2024 tastings, I was reminded that, whilst I am distinctly intolerant of poor or flawed wines, I always try to remember Len’s words and always try to be a wine lover first and foremost.

(being a wine merchant is different; the commercialisation and price of 2024 is another, trickier, question!)