Bordeaux 2018 at Two Years: Bottles to Buy
This year I am finishing my 2018 Bordeaux in-bottle tasting report with an extra instalment. My final report, published here, is my personal selection of the best wines to buy, at prices to suit every pocket.
I have long concluded my barrel tasting reports with Primeur Picks, pointing out some of the best and best-value wines of the vintage. It has always been a popular addition to my primeurs schedule, an easy guide to what to buy at the end of an avalanche of barrel tasting notes. And it was an obvious way to conclude those reports, given that historically the primeurs have been a great way to buy the wines of Bordeaux.
Times have changed though. And so have the release prices. Buying en primeur no longer guarantees a bargain, and in a number of recent vintages wines have fallen in value after release. Buying early is certainly more of a gamble than it used to be and as a consequence I know many subscribers to Winedoctor now choose to wait, and buy once the wines are in bottle. It is a sensible approach; not only can you see if the quality of the vintage has been confirmed now that the wines have finished their élevages, it is at this point also often easier to buy smaller quantities, rather than the 12-bottle cases that were the norm when I made my first en primeur purchase.
With this in mind, I finish up with my Bottles to Buy guide, in which I step back to take an overview of my previous fourteen reports and point out some of my favourite wines. Before that, however, I have just a few closing words on the vintage.
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