The 2014 Growing Season

The 2014 vintage was born from a warm, relatively wet winter. Budbreak was early, occurring in mid-March, but this precocious start would be short-lived. May was rainy, triggering outbreaks of mildew and delaying flowering. Still, coulure turned out to be only a minor problem, mainly affecting Merlot. June brought heat spikes and hailstorms, causing isolated incidents of damage. Then July and August saw unusually cool, cloudy weather. Bouts of rain sparked more outbreaks of mildew. The lack of heat and sunshine made for sluggish vines, further slowing the ripening. Veraison was dismally late, prolonged, and uneven. 

The ripening prospects for red grapes were looking bleak come September 2014. Then the sun came out. The second half of September brought bright, warm conditions, continuing through most of October, essentially saving the vintage. Sporadic rainstorms brought a few showers throughout the region, although any detrimental impact from dilution appears to be slight. Merlot was harvested mainly from late September through mid-October, with the Cabernets following and continuing into late October/early November. 

In the end, while a lot of the lost ripening time was made up thanks to a glorious stretch of sunshine and warmth in September and October, the red berries achieved suitable ripeness but not perfect ripeness. The fruit profile was on the fresher, crunchier, red-berried side. Tannins were, in most cases, ‘al dente’ (chewy). Yet, generally speaking, the tannins were well-managed, meaning most winemakers went lighter on extraction. Aging was sensibly adapted to the moderate weight and intensity of the wines with less new oak usage and abbreviated time in barrels.

Drinking Windows

How are the 2014 reds aging? While I was never under any illusions that the 2014s would be for the very long haul, they do seem to be aging a little faster than I had anticipated. Not that this is necessarily bad—many wines are hitting their strides right now. This said, there are a good number of top wines, especially from the Médoc, such as Mouton Rothschild, Margaux, and Montrose, that still have a good 20 years of aging potential left, so don’t write these beauties off too soon. I’ve included drinking windows with all these new reviews.

Sauternes

In Sauternes, the Indian summer that saved the red wines in 2014 was a mixed blessing—great for achieving ripeness but not so great for the onset of Botrytis. Finally, rains came in the second week of October, triggering rapid, widespread noble rot. The result is concentrated, relatively rich, sweet wines of consistently high quality. This tasting revealed that the top Sauternes and Barsac 2014s are aging slowly and gracefully—well worth seeking out! 

2014 Bordeaux Top 5 Wine Collectibles

Chateau Montrose 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Estephe
Chateau Margaux Premier Cru Classe, Margaux
Chateau Mouton Rothschild Premier Cru Classe, Pauillac
Vieux Chateau Certan, Pomerol
Chateau Climens Premier Cru Classe, Barsac

2014 Bordeaux Top 5 Wine Bargains (Under $100)

Chateau Larcis Ducasse Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Chateau Sociando-Mallet, Haut-Medoc
Chateau Tronquoy-Lalande, Saint-Estephe
Chateau d'Armailhac 5eme Cru Classe, Pauillac
Chateau Doisy-Vedrines 2eme Cru Classe, Barsac

The Tasting

Most of the reviews in this report are based on tastings performed in London in February this year with the Southwold group. The group includes a representative from just about every major fine wine merchant in the UK, Bordeaux expert Bill Blatch (who liaises with the Châteaux to secure the samples), and two other wine critics. The tasting was hosted at the office of Farr Vintners.

Twenty-seven of these wines were not tasted blind but were offered for tasting by Farr Vintners the day before the blind tasting. These include Roc de Cambes, Les Asteries, Clos des Jacobins, Clos de l'Oratoire, Couvent des Jacobins, Le Dragon de Quintus, Le Dome, Fonplegade, Gracia, Grand Mayne, Larmande, Magrez Fombrauge, Monbousquet, Quinault L'Enclos, Le Bon Pasteur, Nenin, Branas Grand, Poujeau, Chasse-Spleen, Cantenac Brown, Marquis d'Alesme, du Tertre, Clos du Marquis, Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre, Lynch-Moussas, and Les Tourelles de Longueville.

Tasting blind is an eye-opening endeavor, highlighting some great wines that may have previously been missed and others that couldn’t keep their promises. This said, we taste fast at Southwold, and sometimes greatness can be over or underestimated, or bottles just don’t show as they should. It can be hard to say if something doesn’t look right when you don’t know what it is at the time of tasting. Wines that are obviously out of condition are flagged by members of the group, and a second bottle is opened if available. If no second bottle is available, we don’t score.

Usually, if I taste a wine with the Southwold Group that is far off my previous impressions, I look to taste it again before publishing the report to ensure we have accurate tasting notes in the TWI database. I did not have the opportunity to do this for several wines tasted this time, so I have published these tasting notes as I saw them with question marks as the scores and will taste the wines again as soon as I have the opportunity. However, there were two 2014s that I tasted at least twice each within the last few months—Ducru-Beaucaillou and Léoville-Barton. I have l left these recent reviews unchanged in our database. There was one wine that I knocked back a couple of points after its identity was revealed and upon retasting it: Château Tronquoy-Lalande (recently renamed Château Tronquoy). This is the sibling property of Château Montrose, also located in Saint-Estèphe. Like Montrose, it was purchased by the Bouygues family in 2006 and has been privy to considerable investment and improvements since then. In my original blind assessment, I gave Montrose 98 points and Tronquoy-Lalande 97. After retasting, there is no doubt that the 2014 Tronquoy-Lalande is outstanding, yet a 95 score is more accurate. What is clear is that this wine is punching well above its weight and is an absolute bargain, while Montrose deserves the crown for wine of the vintage—bravo to the Bouygues family! 

The Southwold Group scores wines using the 20-Point system. I have used the 20-point system many times before for show-judging, yet I feel 100-point scoring is more accurate. Therefore, I scored the wines out of 100 at this tasting and then converted them to the 20-Point system for submitting scores to the group, using the following conversion calculations of my creation.  

20 = 100

19.5 = 99

19 = 97-98

18.5 = 95-96

18 = 93-94

17.5 = 91-92

17 = 90

16.5 = 88-89

16 = 86-87

15.5 = 84-85

15 = 82-83

14.5 = 80-81

14 = 78-79

13.5 = 76-77

13 = 74-75

12.5 = 72-73

12 = 70-71

11.5 = 65-69

11 = 60-64

10.5 = 55-59

10 = 50-54

To follow are my scores out of 20 that were submitted to Southwold Group (regrouped into alphabetical order). The scores I gave out of 100 are included with my reviews in the database, with the exceptions noted above. The tasting notes published with this article are the same as the original reviews I typed when tasting with the Southwold Group, edited only for grammar and to add the wine name and vintage.