The March issue of Wine Spectator magazine contains a report by James Molesworth on the Bordeaux 2016 wines in bottle. The alphabetical listing of his scores can be found on the Wine Spectator website, here.
Unlike Neal Martin, Antonio Galloni and James Suckling, Molesworth did not give any wines a perfect 100 points – or even 99 points. Instead, his highest score (98 points) was awarded to four First Growths and Leoville Las Cases.
Molesworth, however, is famously reserved when it comes to 100 point scores. During his time as Wine Spectator’s Bordeaux reviewer he has never given a wine 100 points. His highest rated Bordeaux vintage (in terms of scores) was the 2010, which he gave five 99-point scores.
Bordeaux 2016 First Growths
Molesworth’s top-scoring First Growths were Haut Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Mouton Rothschild. In his tasting notes, he described Haut Brion as “large and in charge” and Latour as having “remarkable purity”. He also said that Lafite “offers the best of both sides of Pauillac” and was “a real stunner”. His score of 98 points represents his equal-highest ever score for Lafite (he also awarded the 2009 98 points).
As for Mouton Rothschild, Molesworth said that the wine’s “impressive core of fruit steams along like a cruise ship with enough stores in reserve to go around the world twice without stopping”.
Margaux was the only First Growth that failed to receive 98 points from the critic. He awarded the wine a slightly-lower 97 points and described it as having “sublime definition and gorgeous fruit”.
Leoville Las Cases 2016
Leoville Las Cases was the only non-First Growth to feature in Molesworth’s top five scoring wines. In his tasting note, he described the wine as being “really dense, yet remarkably polished and poised”. He added that “there’s a long, smouldering cast iron note through the finish that adds both austerity and authority in a truly unique manner”.
Molesworth’s top-scoring wines can be found in the table below. You can read his full report in Wine Spectator magazine and see the full list of scores at WineSpectator.com.
[mc4wp_form id=”18204″]
