Bordeaux 2023 Primeurs: Appellation Bordeaux
“This isn’t really a left-bank or right-bank vintage, is it?” opined my primeurs spirit guide, fashioned in the image of Taylor Swift, as we cruised along the D936.
The D936, I should say, is now my favourite road in Bordeaux. Whereas some back roads and rat runs (such as the one up to the Médoc appellations through Macau) I have known for years, I discovered the D936 – which takes you directly to the vineyards of St Emilion from Bordeaux’s Rocade (the ring road) – much more recently. On paper it looks longer than other routes, but in truth it gets you there just as quick, and it always seems to be quiet, even when other roads are bumper-to-bumper with rush hour traffic. And, if you are interested, it takes you past the vineyards of Château Marjosse (Pierre Lurton’s estate) and close to those of Château Bonnet (part of the André Lurton portfolio). And probably a few others I should know more about.
All I need now is some way of avoiding the Rocade altogether. While a drive along the D936 invokes the spirit of Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), a stint on the Rocade feels like I have been teleported into the body of James Caan, in the middle of the Houston-Tokyo game in Rollerball (1975), dicing with death while crazed motorcyclists whizz past on either side.
Anyway, enough traffic reports and movie trivia, let’s get back to Taylor’s insightful assessment of the vintage.
“I agree,” I confirmed. “It is more nuanced than that. There are hotspots of quality on the left bank, St Estèphe and Pauillac more than Margaux and St Julien, and on the right bank, Pomerol more than St Emilion. But terroir also matters, as even in those appellations which performed less well overall, with greater heterogeneity, there are still some remarkable wines. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Palmer and Margaux, for example, not to mention Cheval Blanc and Quintus.”
“And style matters, too,” continued Taylor. “This is a vintage with some really great white wines, dry and sweet. They seem to have a freshness, energy and acidity I haven’t seen for years. We saw that in Pessac-Léognan, and now we’ve seen it in these other whites, whether they hail from the left bank, from Margaux all the way up to the Médoc appellation itself, or from the right bank, or – like those rather smart wines from Clos des Lunes – from what used to be Sauternes vineyards.”
