Bordeaux 2014 at Four Years: St Estèphe to Margaux
Heading first to St Estèphe, the sample size was as small as ever here, with just four wines tasted, but the strengths seen on previous encounters sung out as confidently as ever. The 2014 Château Montrose has always been a firm candidate for wine of the vintage, although in a tasting such as this – which did not include some stalwarts such as Château Latour, Château Ausone or Petrus – it would be inappropriate to make any fresh judgements in this matter. Hats off too to the winemakers at Château Cos d’Estournel, Château Calon-Ségur and Château Lafon-Rochet, all three of these 2014s are worthy of our time.
In Pauillac, the 2014 Château Pontet-Canet and 2014 Château Pichon-Baron shone out as beacons of excellence, the former sitting somewhat apart from the rest of the appellation in style, but it is still a remarkable wine. The latter seems determined in most recent vintages to imitate some of its first-growth neighbours, and I think it is succeeding. This wine is now regularly in my personal top-ten on the left bank in any given vintage. And as I noted in my introduction, both these wines seemed a touch more convincing than they have on previous tastes.
Other fine results in Pauillac include the 2014 Château Lynch-Bages, 2014 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste and 2014 Château Duhart-Milon. The two first growths tasted here, the 2014 Château Lafite-Rothschild and the 2014 Château Mouton-Rothschild (Château Latour has not participated in this tasting for as long as I have been attending), were of very good quality, although at this stage they were not head-and-shoulders above some of their peers within the appellation. They seem to hiding their lights under a collective Rothschild bushel at the moment; perhaps when I come back to these wines at ten years of age they will have emerged from their respective shells?
