Colin Hay’s standout wines from Bordeaux 2024

In a podcast this week with Patrick Schmitt MW, db Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay picked out his standout wines from the 2024 harvest – including some surprises. Pointing out that the vintage is a steep-sided pyramid in terms of quality, with great wine at the top, but a base of lesser quality due to challenging vintage conditions, he gave db a snapshot of who excelled in 2024. Indeed, before revealing his picks from Bordeaux in 2024, he said that the vintage “should really go down as a success story – there were a horrible set of vineyard conditions producing uneven results, but among them are wines of extraordinary quality.” Starting in the Medoc, he said that he was “tempted to pick out surprises”, by which he meant looking beyond the First Growths – “which are very good” – and for that reason he began with a second growth property in St Estephe. “If I go to the Medoc, I would single out above all Montrose, which is not really a surprise – Montrose has been producing First Growth quality wine for a number of vintages now, but in 2024 this is a staggeringly beautiful wine,” he said, adding, “The crystalline purity of this wine is amazing and vintage transcendent – when you taste it and you cannot believe it came from a vintage as difficult as 2024.” Moving to St Julien, he said, “In a similar way, but at quite the same level [as Montrose], I would pick out Gruaud Larose, which, alongside Léoville las Cases, were for me the two wines of the appellation: wonderfully pure, bright, crystalline; expressing the vintage well but sublime wines in the context of any vintage let alone one as difficult as this.” Continuing, he said, “Other stars were Cos d'Estournel [in St Estephe] and down in the south in Margaux, Palmer was a great success in this vintage.” As for the firsts, he mentioned Latour in the context of production: “It had tiny yields – around 11hl/ha – which made it very difficult to make a wine as good as it did,” although, he said, “Mouton and Lafite are the stars among the Firsts in this vintage.” On the Right Bank, beginning with Pomerol, he said that it wasn’t a surprise to say that “Lafleur and Le Pin were for me the two star wines.” Having said that, sticking with Pomerol, he added, “I think it’s very important to underscore just how fantastic Eglise Clinet was in this vintage too.” But “there were surprises, if not for me, but for others” when Hay moved the spotlight to St Emilion. Rocheyron – the château co-owned by Peter Sisseck, who is best known as the person behind Spanish fine wine brand Pingus, was Hay’s star in this appellation. That is, “alongside Bélair-Monange” he said, adding, “I think those are my two picks there, just ahead of Cheval Blanc and Figeac, both of which are utterly wonderful.” Summing up he said, “There are lots of great wines,” before stating, “And they are not a cheaper version of something that would be better in a better vintage, these are just as good as the great wines from these estates in any recent vintage.” Listen to the podcast in full to also find out Hay's favourites among the dry and sweet whites of Bordeaux, as well as his thoughts on the demand for en primeur as the campaign kicks off. For more podcasts from the drinks business, click here.