Impatience, which is probably my most obvious flaw if not my worst, almost brimmed over multiple times during last month’s Southwold tasting. As the members of the group discussed each flight after handing in their scores I just wanted to shut up and get on with it: the vast majority of 2021 Bordeaux simply isn’t worth talking about.
That said, time is generally kind to Bordeaux and, with time, more of these wines might offer more pleasure (and the prices will almost certainly come down) but, in my book, 2021 is the worst Bordeaux vintage since 2013. I think I genuinely liked, or would like to own, just two wines from 2021: Roc de Cambes and Carmes Haut Brion. Both taste like nothing else from their appellations and both are wines with enough character to transcend the vintage. I could come up with a handful more at a push but these are the two that stick.
Much as I have next to nothing to write about the wines themselves, there is a bit to note about the vintage and its conception or, rather, its release and the effect that it still has on what is, currently, a truly dreadful market for Bordeaux.
I wrote nothing about 2021s after tasting them from barrel as I had very little to say about it then, but my recollection is that they weren’t THAT bad. Maybe the samples were juiced up a bit, and maybe they were better before their usual élevage.
Equally likely is this: 2021 was the first vintage that anyone had actually been to Bordeaux to taste since the 2018 vintage. The trip marked the end of the insanity of lockdowns (you can take that however you wish to in terms of cause or effect), the end of travel restrictions, an emancipation. It really was. And – as it usually does in April – the sun was shining in Bordeaux. You got to see people: friends, suppliers, former colleagues. Many that you have known for years but haven’t seen for three. I, for one, was very, very happy to be in Bordeaux and to taste some wine.
And that’s where the good bit ends.
There is a theory that following the release of the (brilliant) 2019 vintage, into the unknown world of covid, at prices that actually made sense (and worked), the château proprietors felt that they had quite possibly undersold their wines. They had left some profit on the table (which some of us would argue is the whole point of selling your wine before you’ve finished making it). As prices rose this irked them.
When 2020 followed there was a spin coming from Bordeaux, echoed by many of the critics, that this was another vintage at the same level as 2019 (which it ain’t). The wines, for the most part, were offered at the levels that the 2019s had risen to, rather than those at which they opened at. As such the vintage was for the most part over-priced, though the châteaux just about got away with it on account of the positive appraisal of the vintage (however flawed that may or may not be) and the fact that the negociants wanted to keep their allocations and could borrow cheaply in order to do so.
Then 2021 comes along, right in the middle of what turned out to be a bit of a bubble in the market. The château owners saw (or at least they thought they could see) an opportunity to price anchor. For the most part the wines didn’t sell and got as far as the negociants, who still hadn’t worked out that their allocations were next year’s problem rather than next year’s income and – this is important – could still borrow cheaply to finance them.
Then it changes a little. 2022 comes along. I am looking forward to tasting these from bottle as I am fairly sure that there are (a) some humdingers and (b) some wines that will likely be falling over already. In the Spring of 2023 the Bordelais were thinking more of the humdingers and priced their wines accordingly: it’s clearly better than 2021 by some margin, so the price has to go up, no? A few châteaux – the usual suspects – even priced their wines at a level that eclipsed the market price of anything they had made this century. The en primeur campaign stutters, ultimately fails and leaves a bad taste in more than a few mouths.
And then the wine market started to wobble, and then it fell over. 2023 Bordeaux, released into a very difficult market in 2024, isn’t actually all that bad in terms of quality and prices were down, but by nowhere nearly enough. It failed.
And here we are. Whilst it’s not all down to the release prices of the 2021 Bordeaux vintage, they played their part. Because the key to any successful market is knowing what something is worth, and the way to find that out is to sell it. You need the transaction. 2023 Bordeaux, the “September Releases”, the latest premium release from Argentina, Barbaresco, Tuscany – whatever. None of these work these days because no one knows what they’re worth anymore. Indeed no one knows what anything new is worth as so many wines are released at the price at which the vendor wishes to sell at rather than the price that the consumer is prepared to pay. So all we know is what they’re not worth. In that context, 2021 Bordeaux was the trailblazer: it’s where it all began.
