Bordeaux 2014 at Two Years: St Estèphe
If you have read my introduction to the 2014 Bordeaux vintage then you already know that I am inclined to pour a little cold water on fevered opinions regarding the wines of 2014, specifically on those opinions that suggest this is a great vintage which leaves 2012 or 2011 in its wake (some wines in 2014 are delicious, but more than a handful are not), or that the vintage is awash in brilliant wines at the cru bourgeois level with which we should all be stocking up (one or two wines at this level are good, but many are not).
Having said that, I am now about to upset my own apple cart by pointing out just how delicious some wines are in 2014. I suppose I could have started my region-by-region reports in a different appellation, in order to reinforce my ‘good but not great’ message. But for the past few years I have become accustomed to kicking off with St Estèphe, and so I am doing the same with my 2014 report, and it just so happens that this region bucked the trend in 2014. St Estèphe is the exception that proves the rule.
The inconvenient truth is that the 2014 vintage was excellent for the St Estèphe appellation. In the 2014 vintage the quality of the wines of this appellation surpass those of ‘grander’ appellations to the south, from Pauillac (and of course there are some pretty big names in Pauillac) down to Margaux. In addition, this appellation has made convincingly better wines in 2014 than it did in 2015, and this is rare. In general, the 2015 vintage is either hugely better (this being true on the right bank) or at least no worse (this is true for much of the left bank) than 2014. This is not the case for St Estèphe though, the switch being partly a reflection of a slightly weaker result in 2015, but also of having played an absolute blinder in 2014.
