Bordeaux 2024 Primeurs: Appellation Bordeaux
In this, the penultimate set of tasting notes within my Bordeaux 2024 primeurs report, we come to the dry white, red and even rosé wines making use of the generic Bordeaux appellation, as well as a few stragglers in less commonly encountered appellations. Some of which I am not even sure I know how to spell correctly.
“Great,” muttered the manifestation of Taylor Swift, who appeared to muster every ounce of the attitude usually reserved for display in her music videos (obviously I am thinking first of Look What You Made Me Do and Anti-Hero, but do get in touch using the usual email address if you have other suggestions). “These wines have absolutely no relevance to the primeurs at all. I really don’t understand why so many châteaux show their wines, when en primeur sales are really only relevant for the top one or two hundred famous properties.”
“You have a point,” I replied. “The majority of wines listed below can be purchased after they have been bottled, on the basis of review of the finished wines, and that is true even in a good vintage, never mind a lighter and earlier-drinking proposition such as 2024. Having said that, there are one or two wines that might be of interest at this early stage, such as the more exclusive whites from the left-bank first growths. And I suppose there is always the option, buying at this stage, to choose your bottling format.”
Taylor rolled her eyes. She was not used to hearing contrary opinions. My own thoughts, meanwhile, rumbled along in my head (I mean, where else would they be rumbling?).
Even though I agree with Taylor’s view that many of these wines are not relevant to the en primeur concept, I still make sure I taste as many as possible. If nothing else it acknowledges the work of those who made them, and a critical review might be more useful to a small château, in an otherwise overlooked corner of the region, than you realise. In addition, each individual barrel sample provides a data point for the vintage, and for me a primeurs report has never been solely about ‘buy this, don’t buy that’. It is also an opportunity to develop a broader understanding of the vintage, arguably much more valuable than tediously in-depth analyses of what the point-to-price quality ratio of one Bordeaux wine is over another.
One other reason I make sure I report on these wines is that it is here, in the Vin de France category at the bottom of the page, that we find the region’s curiosities, a fascinating and expanding category. And who doesn’t like a curiosity? This section includes wines made using Rhône varieties including Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne, not to mention Savagnin, Vermentino and Gros Manseng, among others.
These ‘others’ even include the long-forgotten Bordeaux variety Merlot Blanc, a natural cross between Merlot and Folle Blanche which was discovered in 1891 and which has all but disappeared from the region, as well as white wines made using Merlot with no skin contact. The two, despite their names, are definitely not the same!
“Alright, I get your point,” opined Taylor, who had presumably been reflecting.
“I just want to get me some of those whites,” interjected the otherwise silent Aubrey Ealdwyn de Latour. “Let’s start with Margaux and then do Mouton, before we pop next door for the new white from Lafite. Or is it from Duhart. I don’t know – whichever it is, I want to taste it.”
Who was I to refuse our resident wraith?
-o-
I will shine the spotlight (do I have a spotlight? – I think I do) on just a few of the more successful wines before wading into my tasting notes.
From among the whites, I was delighted to find these were in many cases just as exciting as the leading whites from Pessac-Léognan.
