Bordeaux 2014 at Ten Years: Right Bank
In this, my second set of tasting notes on the 2014 Bordeaux vintage revisited at ten years of age, I focus on the major right-bank appellations which are – as if you did not already know – St Emilion and Pomerol. I will conclude with a handful of notes on the region’s sweet white wines (which obviously sees us hopping back over to the left bank for some Sauternes).
While exploring the left bank in 2014 at ten years, among the relatively modest and occasionally easy-going wines I did find a handful – particularly some well-known names from St Estèphe, but others in Pauillac and St Julien as well – which were of real character and interest. I have to say I struggled to find many wines displaying comparable confidence on the right bank, although there are certainly one or two. On the whole, though, I found more convincing textures, more coherent fruit profiles and more joy on the left bank, which feels superior at this stage.
One stand-out wine which does seem interested in challenging the hegemony of the left bank in this vintage, however, is Petrus, which has a convincing sense of tight cohesion and drive, and unlike the overarching character of the vintage – which is on the lighter side, and is tending towards an earlier maturity than I would have hoped – this wine bucks the trend. It feels firm, confident and structured, and is set up to see out many years of future development, a testament to the value of that famous blue smectite clay, I am sure.
Although, having said that, another surefire success from within the vintage came from more gravelly soils, with the 2014 from Le Pin also equipping itself extremely well, this one displaying a much more perfumed character, all violets, rose petals, cigar box and tobacco.
Beyond these two right-bank behemoths a little clutch of wines showed well, led by the 2014 from L’Église-Clinet, all balsa wood and incense, as well as the wine of L’Évangile, which possesses more perfumed rose petal and mint. While this pretty pair hailed from Pomerol, the vineyards of St Emilion were not going to be sidelined, and another worthy performance thus came from the 2014 of Ausone. Le Dôme also showed exceedingly well, perhaps reflecting how the late summer flourish seen in 2014 favoured the later ripening Cabernets, Le Dôme being unusual in that it is 80% Cabernet Franc, of course. Another Cabernet wine which did well, alongside Ausone and Le Dôme, was of course Cheval Blanc.
