Bordeaux 2021 at Two Years: Bottles to Buy
While I am sure I will encounter the occasional bottle from time to time during the coming years, my next significant encounter with the 2021 vintage in Bordeaux is likely to be in 2031, when the wines will be celebrating their tenth birthdays. And so it seems only appropriate, following the publication of all my notes and scores from my post-bottling tastings, that I now draw a line under the vintage, and ponder the age-old question; are these wines we should be buying for the cellar?
The 2021 vintage has the stiffest possible competition for your time and money. After a difficult growing season (and that’s all I will say on the matter in this summary; you can read my introduction to this series of tasting reports, or my original Bordeaux 2021 vintage report, featuring Monsieur Propriétaire and his gold lamé tracksuit, for more detail), the result is a remarkably heterogeneous vintage which runs the gamut from wines of convincing texture and structure which should age well, through the fruit-forward charmers which will drink nicely on release or soon afterwards, to wines which are frankly lean, mean and green.
The former group of wines – the successful, ageworthy wines – is a rather select clique with a very limited membership. These are the wines that transcend, rather than typify, the vintage. Like the best wines of 2014 (a vintage which keeps popping into my head when tasting the 2021s) these wines will develop nicely over the next decade and be genuinely enjoyable to drink. Signed up members of this cadre include some of the leading names of both left and right banks. For those interested in Bordeaux for the cellar, these are the wines to seek out in this vintage.
As for the majority of the wines though, these offer a more limited vinous experience than either Bordeaux’s global reputation or their asking prices might suggest should be expected. While the fruit-forward charmers will provide delightful short-term and restaurant drinking, in this arena they must compete with a myriad other options from around the wine world, everything from coolly composed bistro-style Chinon (and a number of favourable vintages in recent years mean there is plenty to choose from here) to warm-fruited Côtes du Rhône.
