Pessac, Right Bank, and Some 2023 Revelations
I’ll have to admit, and have received feedback as such, that I’ve often been a bit too cynical about the vintage at hand, or the market conditions that challenge the primeur campaign. Perhaps I’m just trying to make sure producers share our stress and reduce their prices. It’s also a tough position to be in–we’re dropped into the middle of the action for a brief week, being pulled in many directions. Avoiding the stress of it is like landing in the middle of a storm and trying to ignore the wind. But today, we’re starting to slow down, and perhaps it is time to focus on some of the bright spots from the last few days.
After travelling down the Left Bank, we ended up in Pessac on Wednesday morning. We made our first trip to Les Carmes Haut-Brion, one of the most truly singular wines in the region and one that is taking collectors by storm. It’s not for everyone, but at the same time I believe it is a must-try wine that speaks volumes to the modern era of Bordeaux, and often lands right at the top of any given vintage. Les Carmes champions freshness and precision, with use of whole clusters (adding a textural element) and exacting winemaking standards. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re around the corner from Haut-Brion, and their vineyards used to be part of the First Growth. Their 2023 is again in top form, without a doubt.
While talking with the team about 2023 Haut-Bailly, they were not shy to bring up 2016 as a point of comparison. As this was the first time that I’ve heard the famed vintage as a parallel, it seemed a bit outlandish. But as someone who has tasted the 2016 recently, and experienced the 2023 firsthand, I can absolutely see what they’re saying. The level of refinement is out of this world, and the brightness and density combine to create a masterpiece Pessac. I also wouldn’t be surprised if their second wine finds many fans in the coming years.
On to St-Emilion today, where I tried La Gaffelière for the fourth or fifth time in this trip. Trust me, it is one of those wines where you shouldn’t hesitate to taste and taste again, given the opportunity. Their 2023 is a wine of balance and texture, delivering mouthwatering fruit to go along with impeccable, seamless structure. This has always been a bit of a favorite of ours En Primeur, and it stands to be a top-flight buy at the current asking price.
Right around the corner is Canon, a winery that needs little said about it these days after claiming one vintage-best wine and 100-point score after another. Where their 2021 was dynamic and charming, their 2022 was flamboyant and irresistible. The 2023 brings another side of this limestone and clay terroir–something a bit more classic and serious, but with the house signature of complexity and luxury that speaks well to their owners at Chanel. If this comes in at a reasonable price, it will be a can’t-miss buy of the 2023 campaign.
And of course, there’s Figeac. They’ve quietly become one of the darlings of collectible circles, and their 2023 is a sterling example of how they’ve earned that regard. While other folks talk about the super-fine, pixelated structure that they aspire to, Figeac executes it with ease. Over half of the wine is a near-even mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, making it distinctive in character. But the combination of electric minerality, generous fruit, and level of precision that has defined their most recent generation of wines is here in volume.
We’ve now tasted too many wines to count, and it’s a good sign that we’ve become more bullish as the days pass. But this is not to say that everything we tasted in the last few days was this consistently impressive. It is a variable vintage for sure, one that shows the terroir, weather, and the producer’s hand in the vintage, for better or worse. But I think that among the challenges of 2023, it must be said that the good wines will deserve plenty of attention and acclaim, and the heights of the vintage will be a joy to taste and revisit over the years to come.
- Ryan Moses, K&L Key Accounts Manager and Bordeaux Specialist