WA on 2015 BDX

[AKR]

LPB has published her take on 2015 from bottle a bit faster than others.

Although I do have the WS at home which seems to have coverage as well.

Here's her opening comments. May be stretching fair use, so I'll delete in a day or so.

I haven't dug into the article/notes etc. The idea of separating out the styles is a good one, but I guess ultimately people will have to see how their own tastes line up with hers.

Mine and NM's never really sync'd up that much.

==============

France, Bordeaux: The 2015s in Bottle – Something for Everyone
LISA PERROTTI-BROWN
21st Feb 2018 | The Wine Advocate | Interim Issue Mid-February 2018
Vintage Wines RP
2015 Cheval Blanc 100
2015 Petrus 100
2015 Haut-Brion 100
2015 Le Pin 99
2015 Chateau Margaux 99 View All Wines
I decided to begin my coverage of Bordeaux for The Wine Advocate a little sooner than originally planned, starting with many of the major, now bottled 2015 wines, which I tasted in January 2018 during my visit to Bordeaux and at the UGC tasting in San Francisco in January, and a number of bottles were purchased. Most of the wines in this report were tasted two to four times. There were a few 2015s that I was not able to taste in time for this report, including many of the wines from Sauternes and Barsac, which will be published in Issue 236. Readers should note that we will also be publishing an online-only version of Neal Martin’s last full report for us on Bordeaux 2015 when we post Issue 235. This will go out purely as a reference article, meaning that Neal Martin’s notes and scores will be available to view in article format, but they will not go into our database and, therefore, cannot be considered official Wine Advocate reviews. We hope this overlapping of coverage with that of our departing Bordeaux reviewer will offer readers an opportunity for calibration, as we fully understand how concerning the change can be for a wine region of such major significance.

It is my intention to produce expert, timely, comprehensive reviews of Bordeaux’s new releases in bottle and barrel each year as well as vintage and Château retrospectives. I have visited Bordeaux regularly since my wine career began in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. In my formative years of wine studies, I was utterly in awe of Bordeaux. Home to many of my “epiphany” wines, back then Bordeaux so clearly, beautifully demonstrated to me the meanings of key wine concepts such as terroir, vintage, ageability and bottle history. Today, while the greatest wine examples of this incredible region continue to make my jaw drop, I do not place Bordeaux on a pedestal. In the context of our ever-expanding world of fine wine, Bordeaux holds a very important place, but it is not the only place. Our readers have an incredible array of regions and wines to choose from nowadays. If I am doing my job right, my reports will serve to guide readers, clearly and concisely, toward finding the best wines to suit their palates, occasions, philosophical endeavors and budgets—be these wines from Bordeaux or elsewhere. If the Bordelais are doing their jobs right, in terms of quality, signature expressions and price, then those wines may well be from Bordeaux.
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Château Margaux
The 2015 Vintage
So many wine lovers only seem to get excited about Bordeaux when faced with universally great or near universally great, relatively homogenous vintages such as 2000, 2005, 2009 or 2010. Not me. Putting quality aside for a moment, apart from being consistent in character to the extent that they are somewhat predictable, universally great vintages nowadays are, by definition, expensive. Although I will confess that there is nothing like wallowing in the glory of a vintage of widespread greatness occasionally, I get much more excited about the quality conundrums, the wonderfully different personalities (even within a single commune) and the opportunities for some bargains afforded by the less universally lauded vintages that possess a good number of sparks of greatness, such as 1996, 1998, 2003, 2008 and, yes, 2015. Please do not think, however, that 2015 has anything stylistically in common with those aforementioned vintages; it does not. 2015 is its own, totally unique animal.

The 2015 Growing Season’s Need-to-Know Details:
March, April and May heralded a dry start to the growing season, equating to a swift and efficient period of flowering.
The region generally experienced very hot and dry conditions throughout most of June and July. The heat and hydric stress slowed the progression of the vines up to veraison, generally resulting in the development of relatively small, thick-skinned berries. By mid-July, the heat and drought conditions were taking their tolls on some of the vines.
Rains occurred in late July and early August, which helped push the parched and, in some cases, struggling vines through veraison and kick-start the most critical ripening period. At this time, more rain fell in the Right Bank, Graves and Pessac-Léognan than in the Médoc.
August remained warm, but September and October were relatively cool months, slowing the ripening across the region.
More rain fell in late August and even more in the first half of September, mainly affecting the Northern Médoc and Saint-Estèphe, although September was generally marked by intermittent rain on both banks. The extent to which these late-season rains affected grapes and ensuing wine quality depended on the site (e.g., drainage), variety and amount of rain received. Dilution was a concern, but the greater risk, in my view, was achieving phenolic ripeness, as the less successful wines attest.
Overall, there was very little or no disease pressure for the red grapes and those destined to make dry whites.
In Sauternes, the climate profile was closer to the Right Bank. Light rains in August and in September led to a controlled, widespread and even onset of botrytis, making this a great year for the stickies!

The Quality and Styles of 2015:
First, the good news: 2015 is an extraordinary vintage for the communes of Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, Graves and Pessac-Léognan. Growing conditions in these areas were pretty much ideal for achieving grapes of full phenolic maturity, great poise and profound signatures. The only—very few—exceptions fetch from younger vines on the freer draining soil types in these areas, where water availability became an issue particularly in the very dry, hot months of June and July. Among these rarities, tannins can be just a tad chewy, and in some cases, the fruit is a little raisiny with less delineation, less layers and a narrower band of fruit characters.
There is commendable consistency of quality within the commune of Saint-Julien, and this is mainly a straightforward case of location, location, location. A relatively small, well-placed, rectangular nugget of an AC, many of the vineyards are situated in close proximately to the Gironde, where opportunities for quality were improved in 2015.
Looking at the precipitation figures alone, Margaux should be more consistent in quality than the wines reveal upon tasting. Indeed, the best wines are truly extraordinary, mainly thanks to their super ripe, super finely grained tannins. However, Margaux is something of a sprawling commune with more site variation than, say, Saint-Julien, equating to somewhat patchier quality. Less successful wines failed to reach full phenolic ripeness and can be a little hard.
Pauillac has produced some superb wines, especially from those vineyards closer to the river. Elsewhere, quality can be less consistent. One very pleasant surprise is the elegant, pretty, medium-bodied, perfumed and yet strikingly intense 2015 signature among the very best wines from Pauillac, even from châteaux that are normally better known for their power and muscle.
Areas of the Northern Médoc (including Saint-Estèphe) are where things start getting a lot patchier, with notable astringency and some dilution affecting many of the wines. The impact on quality is largely down to site specifics and the level of diligence with regard to selection.
There are some higher alcohols on the Right Bank, in the ranges of 14.5% to 15.5% or even higher, in some cases.
Alcohols are mostly in the lower to moderate levels with regard to wines from the Médoc communes, Pessac-Léognan and Graves.
Generally speaking, acid levels are lower than usual but, in most cases, not to the detriment of the wines, and there are some cases in which freshness was a signature this year.
In terms of styles and characters of the vintage, see the section below covering this in some detail. Note that this is an incredibly heterogeneous vintage, in the best possible sense of this term. In other words, there are extraordinary wines across a vast range of styles, offering something to appeal to all lovers of red wine!
Generally speaking, consistency of quality is very good among the dry whites and sweet wines, producing a number of outstanding and even extraordinary examples.

Where are the bargains in 2015?
In particular, there is a huge amount of value to be had this vintage coming out of Fronsac, Saint-Émilion (especially grand cru level), Pomerol and their satellites as well as Pessac-Léognan. Apart from the fact that they enjoyed a pretty much ideal growing season, it is clear that these ACs have not been sitting on their laurels in recent years, and the amount of effort they have invested to up their games truly shines like a beacon this year. Sommeliers, restauranteurs and beverage directors around the world should have a field day purchasing 2015 wines from these areas at very reasonable prices and in abundance. As mentioned in my style comments above and below, stylistically there is something for everyone, and the quality across these areas in 2015 is reliably consistent.

2015 Bordeaux Red Styles
Finally, if readers are buying Bordeaux with the intention of eventually drinking/savoring/treasuring the wines, I cannot stress enough how important it is to look beyond the score and read the tasting note. I work incredibly hard to accurately describe the styles and, in the best cases where it applies, the signature personalities of wines to ensure that readers will understand how the wine will taste and if that taste suits their palate or occasion. I firmly believe that greatness exists across a broad range of valid styles...as does mediocrity and all-out failure. For the record, my personal tastes are broad. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a medium-bodied, elegant and refreshing drink, while other times I prefer a wine that is full-bodied, rich and powerful. And there is a whole myriad of expressions in between these two admittedly simplified ends of a spectrum.

I don’t need to tell readers how incredibly varied Bordeaux wines are. They are especially so in 2015. So, I appreciate that it is something of a shame to try to encapsulate in a nutshell the complexities of those styles. This said, a major part of my job is to make buying decisions easier for readers. Therefore, I’ve broken the reds down into what I see as three major style categories, using language taken directly from my own tasting notes for many of these wines, to offer my top recommendations for the 2015 reds. One very important note on the wines that have been placed into these stylistic categories: this categorization strictly applies to the 2015 vintage. In different vintages, vineyards can (and should!) produce very different styles, meaning a wine can be “Medium-Bodied, Elegant and Refreshing” this year but could well be “Medium to Full-Bodied, Bold and Layered” in another year, or something entirely different altogether. After all, it is this beguiling, ever-changing nature of a vineyard’s offerings each new vintage that ultimately holds our interest and compels us to keep coming back to Bordeaux, year after year.

The Major 2015 Red Wine Styles and Top Recommendations for Cellaring:

1) MEDIUM-BODIED, ELEGANT AND REFRESHING:
Perfumed yet intense aromas and flavors that are more in the red and black fruits spectrum and often possessing a floral lift on the nose and palate as well as a minerality to the finish
Usually structured by soft, silken, very finely grained tannins—which can still be quite firm—and lively acidity
Tend to have modest alcohols in the 12.5% to 13.5% range
2015 Top Recommendations of this Style for the Cellar
Latour (98)
Pichon-Longueville Baron (97)
Ducru-Beaucaillou (97)
Lafite Rothschild (96+)
Pontet-Canet (96+)
Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (96)
Pape Clément (96)
Cos d’Estournel (95)
Léoville Barton (95)
Montrose (95)
Domaine de Chevalier (95)


2) MEDIUM TO FULL-BODIED, BOLD AND MULTILAYERED:
Tend to have an exuberant, multifaceted character with well-delineated red, black and blue fruits layers and great purity
Often offer a built-like-a-brick-house frame of firm, ripe, grainy tannins with seamless acidity
Alcohols are usually middle of the road at around 13.6% to 14.5%
2015 Top Recommendations of this Style for the Cellar
Cheval Blanc (100)
Pétrus (100)
Château Margaux (99)
La Mission Haut-Brion (98)
Mouton Rothschild (98)
Palmer (98)
Figeac (97+)
Haut-Bailly (97+)
Canon La Gaffelière (97)
Clinet (97)
Rauzan-Ségla (97)
Smith Haut Lafitte (97)
La Conseillante (96+)


3) FULL-BODIED, RICH AND POWERFUL:
Mainly black and blue fruits and often fairly spicy in nature
These wines usually offer a wonderfully plush, velvety texture and acid that sits firmly in the background
Alcohols have a tendency to be on the higher side, often extending above 14.5%
2015 Top Recommendations of this Style for the Cellar
Haut-Brion (100)
Ausone (99)
Le Pin (99)
Bélair Monange (98+)
Pavie (98)
Péby Faugères (98)
L’Evangile (97+)
Angelus (97)
Hosanna (97)
Trotanoy (97)
La Violette (96+)
Valandraud (96+)
Canon (96)
La Fleur-Pétrus (96)
Troplong Mondot (96)

[Nicklasss]

Not that many Margaux wines in that listing, and I don't understand why, especially that they were very open with good homogeneity compared to other aoc, when I tasted them last January.

Seems to me like most of the critics have always the same objectives: most expensive wines are the best. It is redundant, oh well.

Nic

[danzur]

Nic,

Keeps the prices from jumping up on the wines we know we want to buy. That's good news!

Bad news is I've been pushing back on buying Haut Bailly and Pichon Baron. Prices aren't going to decrease after the last few ratings have come out. I'll still get them, just fewer bottles I suppose.

Thanks for posting this-very insightful.

[tiesface]

Many thanks for posting. Also confused by the report on Margaux

[AKR]

I'm about half way through her detailed TNs. They are not as entertaining as NM's. I was surprised to see that she used the UGC event for some of them. Having attended those in the paste, admittedly a long time ago, and not as a storied member of the press, I don't see how one can glean much from them. Presumably she's treated better than the hoi polloi.

She does seem to cover more of the ever expanding number of second wines being produced, in bottle. I find barrel notes for that category to be even less useful, since no one has any idea of what they'll actually end up bottling vs. the grand vin.

I didn't buy much 2015.

[tiesface]

Agree on UGC. I like that she’s trying a new approach with the style categories. I think there is value in that.

However, she urges to read her notes and not the score, and I’m not getting much from her notes. Short, strict, lacking charisma and personality.

I thought NM was starting to develop a solid brand. We’ll see he develops at Vinous. I’ll be honest that I love Jeff Leve’s notes, although he has a broader palate.

I was selective in 2015 and hammered 2016. Feeling pretty good.

[Chateau Vin]

Pathetic comical writing with a yawn inducing writing... Dumb as a dodo bird...so many contradictions with regards to features of the article.... Fingerprints of a novice all over the place...

[jckba]

While I never really paid any attention to her scores as I thought her assigned regions were still those of Australia and New Zealand ... but I guess since Jeb and Neil’s departures that has morphed her coverage into Cali, Oregon and Bordeaux and I have to say that that’s not all that bad of a self promotion.

As far as the above, I am not sure I’d be as harsh as CV but I do think those top 10 style based lists could provide to be useful for the nouveau riche novices

[AKR]

It seems like there was a bigger dispersion of scores. Lots of stuff in the lows 80's, and even a few high 70's in there. Haut Bages Liberal takes it on the chin for example.

But again, until one can really taste, with some age, and compare to what she's saying, I'm not sure how useful these are. She waxes on and on about Le Pin. Wonderful. But that's not really germane to the 99%.

I get the sense from her opening commentary that she's covering the region because she has to, and she is qualified to opine professionally, but she's not going to grovel to the Bordelaise. The tone seems to be: when the wines are good, available, and fair they are compelling...but there are lots of other regions that offer all those too.

Also, I do not sense she will be able to summon up verticals or estate exposition the way Neil Martin did. He seems to have a deep cellar, or good connections, and those shined in his commentary.

[Chateau Vin]

JC, I know I was harsh, but TAsting Notes is one thing, but lazy wine journalism is another....

I know it's difficult to step in the shoes of RP and do justification, but come on, the article comes across as a hastily written blurb which doesn't serve any purpose...

Assuming that it's not an excerpt but a full article, here are my impressions...

It starts off with a self-serving note that she started Bordeaux review sooner than later. Who the heck cares if you have to do it sooner or later? Just do a good job, rather than hurrying it and putting a shoddy article in the journal...

Those groupings based primarily on alcohol bodies is dumb as a dodo bird...That type of grouping really bugs me. It gives impression that full bodied ones are rich and powerful and not elegant and vice versa... The wines of the 80s generally had lower alcohols. So does that mean they were not powerful? She touched upon saying this classification is for 2015 vintage only, but going this route to group the wines any particular vintage is really bad IMO.

She claims, that 'the greatest wines from Bordeaux continue to make her jaw drop, but she won't put Bordeaux on the pedestal'. We know other regions also produce great wine, but what does that statement mean? She just dropped that line as a filler?

She raves about non-homogeneous vintages, their nuance offerings and how she gets all enthused about such vintages. She emphatically states that 2015 is one of those, but where in the article does she touch upon the chateaux that highlight those nuances. She just listed only top names...

She claims in the article that she is helping to make purchase decisions for readers about the 2015 vintage... But she just listed bunch of growth properties and the list is irrelevant to overwhelming majority of Bordeaux wine drinkers...Damn it...

She just listed top dogs of Bordeaux as her 2015 recommendations. You don't have to waste paper and ink to print that list as everyone knows you generally don't need to do actual tasting to come up with that list. If she is so enthusiastic about 'sparks' of non-homogeneous vintages and opines that retailers/restaurateurs will have field day finding gems in fronsac, satellite areas, then she hasn't listed not a single one... Well, she could have atleast cursorily mentioned few of those chateaux. We could come up with some with just UGC tasting. She says she has access to UGC, barrel samples and chateaux tastings. And that's what she came up with? Just plain stupid...

I feel a waste of time to even go further... Where is the freakin' editor of this WA? He/she must be sleeping I guess, as this a very sleep inducing article. People spend their hard earned money to subscribe to the journal. They don't deserve to get crap for their money...

[AKR]

In her 450 notes she does cover a bunch of the lower Bordeaux AOC, but I don't recognize many of them.

She does state that of the Sauternes, she will get to them later.

LPB is actually the editor of the WA btw.

[felixp21]

oh, wow, what an awful report. Many thanks for posting some of it, I feel vindicated dumping eRP for Vinous.

There is so much wrong with this report, I wouldn't even know where to start. However, having suffered thru her simply dreadful Aussie reports in recent times, (they are a source of huge amusement amongst Aussie wine lovers) this jumbled mess comes as no surprise.

I wonder how many subscribers will remain faithful to eRP now that their Bordeaux assessment has also fallen into the abyss, like so many others of important wine regions.

Dear ol' Lisa should have offered everything including the kitchen sink to keep NM, her publication is now a minnow in the wine world.

[JimHow]

I dumped the Wine Advocate two years ago and I have no regrets.

[DavidG]

Three or four years for me. No regrets. About the only value was old TNs and the wine board, but the wine board was decimated when they limited it to subscribers.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Did she have a "Full bodied, rich and blends well with Coca-Cola" category?

[RPCV]

I also gave up on WA...12 years ago, I think. Lack of substance and appreciation for food while demanding homogeny. The new writing seems to continue that method....way too commercial and a ham-handed extract above modeled to attract as many people as possible to the 2015 vintage. Sigh....sticking with 2014 and 2016 for new vintage acquisition and only Domaine de Chevalier in 2015.

[AKR]

Its being pivoted to some kind of lifestyle magazine, Michelin food reviews, travel notes, and giant 100pt Bacchanals with RMP.

I don't care for that business direction/model, but clearly its worked well enough for M. Shanken and his Spectators.

At some point I'll likely shift over to vinuous too but the only notes I'll read generally in depth are bdx and rhones, along with long form articles.

I don't understand the whole coverage of Australia, Greece, sake etc.

[greatbxfreak]

I don't have a subscription for WA and therefore I haven't read all the TNs.

I agree on some wines here, imho should f.i. P.Comtesse get higher score.

One thing which irritates me is mistake with weather conditions during harvest in St.Estephe. Yes, there was rain, but for the most soils there are well-drained and vineyards hilly, so water didn't stay long there. One thing many wine journalists tend to forget all the time is the fact that after rain the wind changed direction to east/north-east and dried up vineyards in no time. I tried really hard during my tastings in Bordeaux last year to find astrigency and dilution in St.Estephe wines - it didn't happen.

For me 2015 resembles 2005 vintage's aromatic sensuality, added the fruit sweetness of 2009 and fatness of 2010 tannin. Why compare it to 1996, 1998 and 2003?

She doesn't mention L'Eglise Clinet, Bourgneuf, La Lagune, Petit Village and Seguin?

I really miss now Robert Parker with his direct and intelligent style of writing.

However, I will taste several 2015s while in Bordeaux in 1.5 month's time.

[tiesface]

Thanks Izak, looking forward to your report.