BORDEAUX 2018 En Primeur Report © Linden Wilkie, May 2019 THE FINE WINE EXPERIENCE | Shop A, 165-166 Connaught Road West, Hong Kong Office:+852 2803 0753 | Email:
[email protected] | Website: www.finewineexperience.com BORDEAUX 2018 - EN PRIMEUR REPORT INTRODUCTION I’ll repeat here what I wrote last year – the top ten for value list is compiled using a highly 2018 is a BIG vintage, of bold, everything- scientific process called “eye-balling”. I look laden wines – fruit, alcohol, tannins. Those who at the score, and what I thought of the wine, I managed to keep everything in balance, and consider the likely price range, and I ask myself not over-extract the naturally abundant tannin “is this really great quality for the price?” I then potential, made large-scaled wines of real rank them via a careful amalgam of price and promise. Some will become legends. You will emotion. Would I buy any of these wines for need to consider carefully whether the style of myself? Yes, undoubtedly. the year is to your taste, but if it is there is plenty to choose. 2018 was a challenging season that took a lot of careful work, however (mildew and WEATHER, CHALLENGES AND then drought), so both terroir-luck, and good CHARACTER OF THE VINTAGE decisions were critical to achieving the best the vintage had to offer. In other words, there were 2018 was a game of two halves. The first half duds, so read as many critic’s notes as you can, of the year was very wet, and then warm and and pick carefully.