Jane Anson began her Bordeaux tastings in Mid-April with about 150 wines, adding 850 additional samples across the length of the campaign. In summation, Anson proclaimed, “I can unhesitatingly say that 2019 is a successful vintage in Bordeaux”.
Anson rated the red wine vintage 4.5/5 stars noting, “the idea of globally successful vintages such as 2005 and 2010 becomes less realistic now that we are seeing summers with more and more extremes”, adding, “more and more we will see 5-star vintages only in certain areas”. Anson provides individual reports on the Bordeaux sub-regions, informing where major success can be found.
When comparing 2019 to great vintages of the past, Anson said she “would still put 2010 and 2016 as the best vintages of the past decade, but 2019 is not so far behind, in the best places”.
Uncovering trends of the 2019 campaign Anson noted the changing of Chateau Palmer’s selling strategy. She found Palmer was “not going the full Latour but releasing 50% En Primeur and 50% 10 years on”. Throughout the campaign, multiple chateaux reduced the size of their release volumes.
Adding to 2019 trends, Anson observed that “white wines are getting more and more popular with the big names and are clearly on trend”. From our coverage of Bordeaux 2019 releases, white wines seldomly showed the large discounts from 2018 seen by most red wines.
Pricing of the newest vintage was at the forefront of the campaign and Anson found that “there have been some standout examples of wines coming out under the cheapest market price, which is what you should look for rather than specific percentage price drops”.
Anson closed with, “those who have made a clear gesture to the market are being rewarded – and in my mind it is not just about the market this year, but about making a clear gesture to the Bordeaux wine lovers who are willing to buy the wines despite everything that is going on globally”.
Jane Anson’s top wines of Bordeaux 2019 can be found in the table below:
To read her full report on Bordeaux 2019, you can find it here.
Looking for more?
Our Bordeaux 2019 pages contain everything you need to know about this year’s En Primeur campaign; analysis tools, critic scores, reports and more.
