Bordeaux 2023 at Two Years: The Rest of The Right
This is the second of my ‘mopping up’ reports on the 2023 Bordeaux vintage now it has been bottled. Here I report on all the wines from the various right-bank appellations, outside of St Emilion and Pomerol.
That means the St Emilion and Pomerol satellites, the increasingly relevant Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac appellations, and a variety of Bordeaux Côtes. The latter is currently led by Bordeaux Côtes de Castillon, but perhaps not for long; having banded together, many working in this appellation have finally realised how the côtes prefix dumbs down what is achieved in this, arguably the leading appellation on the right bank after the big two mentioned at the top of the page.
I learnt during visits in this region during the summer months of 2025 that they have already submitted an application to change the name to simply Castillon, and leave the côtes behind. I hope it succeeds, and that it is of benefit to them.
The vineyards of Castillon therefore seem as good a place to start as any, and while many of the usual subjects showed pretty well, the 2023 Clos Lunelles from the Perse stable, tasted alongside Château Pavie, is a delight, more tightly defined than the other St Emilion from the Perse team, Monbousquet, with a compact palate of cleanly defined fruit and limestone grip.
