Over the past year, The World of Fine Wine has published hundreds of our writers’ notes and scores on Bordeaux. Here we pick out some of the most notable and admired bottles that appeared in print and online in 2024.
2020 Château Angélus Grand Vin Blanc Vin de Pays de l’Atlantique
In June, Raymond Blake savored the first release of Château Angélus Grand Vin Blanc, the Bordeaux estate’s white micro-cuvée.
“As expected, the centerpiece and standout wine of a Château Angélus dinner I organized in Dublin last year was the 1985 vintage, shipped directly from the château for the occasion. Approaching its 40th birthday, it boasted the gorgeous sweet savor of well-aged claret, with a flavor that was gently insistent and in no way coarse. A delightful and wonderfully satisfying wine. And yet…
“It could not be denied—and all of the diners agreed—that it was ever so slightly upstaged by the first wine of the evening: this young pretender, this Château Angélus Grand Vin Blanc. No matter how much they eulogized the 1985, each made their remarks while metaphorically looking over their shoulder. The memory lingered of a remarkably fresh and satisfying wine, delicate, beautifully composed, and with a graceful and harmonious finish.”
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2020 Château Angélus Grand Vin Blanc
(40% Chardonnay, 20% Chenin Blanc, 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Semillon; 13% ABV)
Trying to pick apart the aroma and flavor of this wine, identifying the contribution that each grape variety makes, is a largely futile exercise. An attempt might credit the Chardonnay with providing the foundation, the Chenin some mineral bite, the Sauvignon a fresh zip, and the Semillon a touch of gloss. Searching for each component, however, by way of swirling, sniffing, and sipping, was like trying to winkle out the various colors an artist used in a great painting—seldom was a wine so obviously greater than the sum of its parts. Delicious, pure fruit was its calling card, on both the nose and the palate, where it was joined by subtle and nuanced floral notes. The lovely depth of flavor carried into a crystal-clear and lingering finish. A poised and precise wine. | 95
Mouton insights and surprises over 50 years—for good and ill
Andrew Jefford tasted 1986 Château Mouton-Rothschild along with a flock of other mature Mouton vintages as part of the fall session of the Riga Wine & Champagne Festival.
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“And so to the two biggest surprises. The most-liked wine overall was the 1962: still dark in color, ringing and pure in style, serenely classical and accessible. A “tender delight,” as Michael put it. Whereas the 1986—a legendary wine, given a perfect score by numerous critics—was little enjoyed among its peers on this day; it received just one vote. Dark, dense, not quite opaque, with close-knit but furrowed aromas of cedar and coal dust and a sinewy, severe, taut, acid-structured palate that insisted on admiration but seemed ungenerous for all that. Michael Schuster described how this “originally magnificent” wine “has become a thoroughgoing enigma.” It was still glorious in 2003, he said, but the tannins had come to dominate by 2013, and in Riga he found it “dry-edged, stolid, grippy, brief, and charmless,” with its “fruit in retreat […] flesh falling away and exposing an intransigent tannin”. A “positively grumpy old age” lay in store, he feared.”
2023 Bordeaux: Enigma decoded
The region may be battling challenges on numerous fronts, but the 2023 Bordeaux vintage, while seldom scaling the heights of its immediate predecessor, nonetheless offers many very elegant, refined wines of great potential, with a decidedly fresh ‘contemporary classical’ feel, said Simon Field MW as he introduced his en primeur report.
“The red carpet snakes through the vat room, past the dazzling stainless steel, and then into the barrel warehouse, expensive barriques lined up, and finally into the tasting room. Troplong Mondot had transformed its en primeur tasting in April into the Oscars, a confident welcome for the 5,000 or so who had come to taste the young wines and, implicitly, to lend support to an apparently faltering mechanism. Smiles and laughter, a few tongues in cheeks, and the prospect of some excellent, if young, wines. The supply-side logic of the primeurs—which has been focused on demand exceeding supply and on subsequent asset appreciation—is being questioned. The red carpet symbolizes a gentle snub to all that—a statement of hubristic self-belief and a playful endorsement of a highly successful sales vehicle. But has it worked?
“The widening diaspora between the quality of the product and the fragility of the mechanism comes into even sharper focus in a year that, though prized and classically structured, does not scale the heights of its forebear. The purpose of this report is primarily to focus on the vintage itself, but it would be unwise to ignore the commercial backdrop, albeit a backdrop that covers but a small, rarefied part of the greater Bordeaux market and that does not give sufficient attention to some of the issues on the less glamorous side of the marketplace, where more than 8,000ha (nearly 20,000 acres) of vines have been uprooted and where the ever-more prevalent scourge of mildew is less likely to be treated as a result of lack of resource. Troubled times, then. And yet the Bordelais have never been making better wine, as what follows will hopefully celebrate with no lack of enthusiasm.”
2020 Château Lafite Rothschild 1er Cru (93% CS, 6% M, 1% PV)
SF | “Serenity” is the word that Eric Kohler chooses to describe both the passage of the seasons at Lafite and the wine itself. It is not demonstrative; indeed, it is initially a little reticent. The assemblages were completed earlier than usual, in December, and Eric recalls how everyone was amazed that harmony and equilibrium, a sense of completeness, even before élevage, had been achieved. Thereafter, 90% new oak—hardly noticeable, such is the innate richness and depth of flavor of the wine. Cassis is the first to emerge, then black cherry, charcuterie, coal dust, iodine… The descriptive gates are pushed wide open. The proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, at 93%, is high but not the highest ever (it was 99% in 1994 and, lest we forget, 100% in 1961), but this is an ode to the virtues of long-maturing Cabernet; harmonious now and destined to be harmonious long into the future. Superb! | 98–99
2020 Château Latour 1er Cru (92% CS, 8% M)
SF | Dense of color and aroma, a quintessential Latour, the savory and the sweet sharing the honors, albeit if the fruit tilts toward the darker end of the spectrum. Four extra barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon were made this year. Cassis leaf and woodsmoke, camphor and black pepper, soy, iodine, and a hint of eucalyptus. Encyclopedic, for sure; architecturally imposing but in no way overwhelming. The alcohol is 13.2%—lower than most recent vintages—and yet there appears to be no loss of latent power and no compromise when it comes to the vigor of the tannins. For all its saturnine guise, the wine is vibrant, alert, responsive. The aromatics linger across the palate; the finish is finely scented and vital. A magisterial wine—a towering Latour, indeed. | 98–99
Global Cabernet Franc: A study in ripeness
Bordeaux featured strongly, providing the highest-scoring wine in a panel tasting of Cabernet Franc, a grape variety that has become increasingly popular with growers and drinkers for its ability to retain freshness in a warming world, and which is proving itself capable of great stylistic variation.
“Depending on how you weight them, our scores suggested a fairly equal preference for the wines of the Loire and the more fulsome, richer styles produced elsewhere; the Loire scooped up six of the top 11 places but failed to place in the top 4, where Bordeaux, Napa, and Tuscany ruled the roost.
“For my own part, however, I can see that there are traces of a residual prejudice for the Loire style—or at least a deep-seated sense that it is the only truly authentic expression of Cab Franc—when I claim I’m “not thinking about the variety” in my notes for my highest-scoring wine of the tasting (the sumptuous but divinely detailed Guinaudeau [Château Lafleur] Les Perrières Bordeaux Supérieur) or when I say it’s “hard to discern any varietal Cab Franc flavor” in my second-favorite wine (the impeccably stylish La Jota Vineyard Co Howell Mountain Cabernet Franc Napa Valley California USA 2019).
“On reflection, and with more than a hint of l’esprit de l’escalier, this doesn’t seem quite right. What I had spotted was an “absence of Loire Cab Franc flavor,” not an absence of Cab Franc flavor tout court. In essence, what I was tasting and enjoying in these two magnificent wines was an expression of Cab Franc at different levels or types of ripeness. My fellow panelists and I will continue to cherish what Simon calls the “cool, high-in-acidity, aromatic, guileless” Loire style. But if nothing else, this tasting showed that Cabernet Franc is capable of making truly beautiful, articulate, always arrestingly fresh red wines in a far greater range of styles, conditions, and levels of ripeness than the evergreen caricature would suggest.”
Guinaudeau (Château Lafleur) Les Perrières Bordeaux Supérieur Bordeaux France 2019 (15% ABV) |96
SF | Ruby red, attractive and forthcoming; a nose of cigar box, soft earth, and spice, fruit discreet in the background; very composed, very attractive. On the palate, the fruit fans out beautifully, elegant, resourceful, and composed, its concentration almost concealed by an ethereal floral appeal. A very accomplished, satisfying, and impressive wine. | 95
AR | Dense and deep in youthful ruby, this is still brooding and youthful in aroma, lurking as if to pounce, yet there’s a sweet, spicy veneer and an energy about it that acts as a call to arms; this is wonderful fruit, dense and rich in taste and texture, and yet somehow effortless and elegant at the same time; the purity of the dark berry and cassis fruit shines through, oak adding a spicy veneer of texture and voluptuous charm, all underpinned by a remarkable freshness and energy for great balance. The sort of wine that restores your faith in Bordeaux, whether you can afford it or not. 2024–39. | 97
DW | Gorgeously inviting, with its deeply plush but intricately brocaded scents, and velvety, fine-grained tannins: Cab Franc energy and acidity and fragrance, for sure (red fruit curling around black), but this is not a wine in which you are thinking about the variety or the blend, rather the exceptional depth and refined, sensual, hedonistic quality. 2024–38. | 95
