Bordeaux 2024 en primeur: the Pessac-Léognan, Graves & Bordeaux whites
The post Bordeaux 2024 en primeur: the Pessac-Léognan, Graves & Bordeaux whites appeared first on The Drinks Business.
Db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay is now close to concluding his virtual tour of the 2024 en primeur releases as he comes to review the dry white wines of Pessac-Léognan, the Graves and Bordeaux more generally, in this complex vintage.
In ten years’ time it is credible to think that Bordeaux 2024 will be remembered as a mixed vintage for the reds but as a rather stronger and quite distinct vintage for the whites.
Whilst that is a view that I have already heard much and a view which certainly captured quite well my expectations for the vintage as I arrived in Bordeaux to taste the first wines early in April, it is not really a view that I would defend today, one month on.
Even if they were typically picked in rather more benign conditions than the reds, these wines were ultimately forged from the same growing season – and they are marked by it in much the same way. True, if there is a single ‘problem’ with the reds it is the elevated acidity that characterises the vintage and which is, so often these days, the missing ingredient in the whites of a region more and more impacted by global climate change.
But 2024 reminds us – well, it certainly reminds me – that there is more to great dry whites than freshness alone. For in the end I find these wines just as heterogeneous and pyramidal in their qualitative range as the reds – truly breath-taking in their vivacity at the top but sometimes dilute and uninteresting as we descend the qualitative spectrum.
Like the choice of grapes for vinification in this vintage, my selection has been strict. Below are the tasting notes for the highlights of this uneven but, at the top, spectacular vintage.
The wines are presented by their appellation group, Pessac-Léognan and Graves first (together), the Bordeaux blancs secs second.
In ten years’ time it is credible to think that Bordeaux 2024 will be remembered as a mixed vintage for the reds but as a rather stronger and quite distinct vintage for the whites.
Whilst that is a view that I have already heard much and a view which certainly captured quite well my expectations for the vintage as I arrived in Bordeaux to taste the first wines early in April, it is not really a view that I would defend today, one month on.
Even if they were typically picked in rather more benign conditions than the reds, these wines were ultimately forged from the same growing season – and they are marked by it in much the same way. True, if there is a single ‘problem’ with the reds it is the elevated acidity that characterises the vintage and which is, so often these days, the missing ingredient in the whites of a region more and more impacted by global climate change.
But 2024 reminds us – well, it certainly reminds me – that there is more to great dry whites than freshness alone. For in the end I find these wines just as heterogeneous and pyramidal in their qualitative range as the reds – truly breath-taking in their vivacity at the top but sometimes dilute and uninteresting as we descend the qualitative spectrum.
Like the choice of grapes for vinification in this vintage, my selection has been strict. Below are the tasting notes for the highlights of this uneven but, at the top, spectacular vintage.
The wines are presented by their appellation group, Pessac-Léognan and Graves first (together), the Bordeaux blancs secs second.
Highlights in 2024
Best of the appellations:
- La Mission Haut-Brion blanc 95-97
- Smith Haut-Lafitte blanc 95-97
Truly exceptional:
- Haut-Brion blanc 94-96
- Pape Clément 94-96
- Couhins 93-95
- Couhins-Lurton 93-95
- Domaine de Chevalier 93-95
- de Fieuzal 93-95
- Larrivet Haut-Brion 93-95
- Latour-Martillac 93-95
Value picks:
- Picque Caillou 92-94
- La Garde 91-93
- Ferrande 90-92+
