St Emilion Grand Cru Classé, 2024: Older Vintages
Following my publication of new notes and scores on more than 30 wines from the 2020 vintage, after tasting them with members of the Association des Grands Crus Classés de St Emilion, I continue here with my report on the older vintages these châteaux also poured.
Put yourself in the shoes of a château proprietor or technical director (or maybe even the sales and marketing manager – you can appoint whoever you want at your imaginary château); tasked with bringing along another vintage to pour alongside your 2020, which would you choose? It needs to be commercially relevant, so there is little point in bringing the last few bottles of your 1945 vintage, no matter how well received it is likely to be.
It makes sense to opt for a recent vintage of high quality – there is little to be gained from showing sow’s ears when there are silk purses waiting to be poured – but also one which produced good volumes which need to be sold. The obvious choices would be 2019 and 2016, and combined these two vintages accounted for two-thirds of the older vintages on the day, with the younger of the pair the more popular choice. The remaining one-third featured some other obvious quality-minded choices, such as 2018 and 2015, but also a few surprises. The 2017 vintage, for example, as well as 2014 and even 2012.
As I recently mentioned in my Bordeaux 2021 in-bottle tasting reports, a handful of attendees chose to show a vintage even younger than 2020. A decision which perhaps reflected their very recent promotion to the grand cu classé rung of the St Emilion classification, this was the path taken by Château Croix de Labrie (pictured), Château Tour Baladoz and Château Tour Saint Christophe.
Well, that’s enough on the range of vintages; it is perhaps of more interest to check out which were the top wines poured on the day [spoiler: of course, the vintage is far from irrelevant in this matter].
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