Best of the best from the first tastings of 2015 Bordeaux wines in the barrel

The buzz had been building steadily for the Bordeaux 2015 vintage since the grapes were harvested last September. Now that the annual tasting week – which saw buyers and journalists from around the globe converge in Bordeaux – has concluded, it’s time to ask if it lives up to the hype. After four or five years of disappointing returns for buyers, is this the vintage that will justify putting your money down to buy something a year to 18 months before it is bottled and delivered?

I would say in many cases that yes, 2015 has lived up to expectations, but not across the board. The weather was fairly unusual, with an extended hot and dry period in the early summer, then a (much needed) rainy August, followed by a September and October that saw maybe 30mm of rain fall in Pessac Léognan, Saint Emilion and Pomerol, with up to 100mm in the more northerly spots of the Médoc.

In terms of style, this means that there are a few things to keep in mind. There is a bigger left bank/right bank split than I have seen in many years, but there are excellent wines on both banks. At times, it really does seem to be two vintages.

Eric Kohler, technical director at both Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac and Chateau L’Evangile in Pomerol, says, “2015 was like two very different but equally excellent vintages – with plump, rich fruit in Pomerol and precision and complexity in Pauillac”. Shaun Bishop of J. J. Buckley wine merchants in California made the same point in a different way, saying; “The left bank is a European vintage, the right bank is an American vintage.”

On the left bank, the wines don’t have the drama of 2010 or the voluptuousness of 2009. Instead, they bear comparisons to 2005, with touches of 2001. On the right bank, things are closer to 2009 or 1998 (with warnings, as ever, of certain wines in Saint Emilion that have gone all-out on extracting fruits and wrapping them up in new oak). There is a beautiful flexibility in the tannins of the best wines, and wonderfully juicy fruit underneath that really gives a mouth-wateringly seductive feel to many wines.

As ever with high-quality vintages, there are some excellent value options and you don’t have to go to the biggest names for pleasure and ageing ability.