Bordeaux and a Bottle to Inspire

Yesterday was a day of exploring Bordeaux, discovering a vintage, tasting First Growths (and wines that rivaled them), and spending time with friends new and old. All in all, it was a great day to be part of the people, wines, and region of Bordeaux. Unfortunately, it has become clear that it will take a bit more than a day to figure out this sometimes confounding, sometimes profound, and very unique vintage that’s about to shape the market. Conclusions for these wines will come in a matter of days, weeks, and years, but I’ll not be able to draw anything today.

In some ways, this vintage reminds me of my first one to the region with K&L, where not only am I exploring how our insight on a vintage develops as the days pass, but also in the fact that the character of the wines seems so remarkably similar to that year. And it is in that fact that Bordeaux feels familiar, like revisiting an old friend. The beats are the same, but you each grow in your own separate ways and meet again as friends who share a common bond. Bordeaux is also unique in that way–very few regions give you the same opportunity to follow the lifespan of a wine and a region with such relief as time passes.

In other ways, this year’s crop of Bordeaux seems so much more polished, refined, and ready to tell you its story as it was years ago. There’s barely a tasting where we aren’t marveled by parcel-by-parcel vinification from gravity-fed wonders of construction. Every little nook and cranny has a reason or rhyme. But the process is still never mechanical or rote–it is still a delicate craft that needs guidance, intervention, and unceasing attention. Whether it’s the constant back-and-forth with Mother Nature or the changing tides of consumer sentiment or the need to pay the next bill, there is pressure in every decision being made.

Either way you look at it, one thing is for sure–the wines of Bordeaux are still inspiring. Where other regions’ wines can often seem like a flash in the pan, there is something solid and substantial about a specific bottle of vintage Bordeaux. The joy of old wine shared, bottles long forgotten that surprise or cause folks to reminisce, and even those old oddities deserve and demand attention. More often than not, these wines deliver–whether a story, experience, or just the unparalleled opportunity to know that a bottle can be enjoyed with a shared language that other wines have trouble replicating.

In the coming days, we will have a bit more insight into this next generation of wines–the 2023s. We’ve started in on the Left Bank and will get a lot more depth in this side of the Gironde today. The vintage feels like it is full of potential–perhaps not in the same knock-you-off-your-socks style as 2022, but maybe some wines will be better for it. And if prices go where they need to, maybe your cellar will be better for it too.

In the meantime, my best advice is to find a worthy bottle from your cellar, try not to overthink it, and find someone to open and share it with. The idea of trying to find the perfect bottle for the occasion is sometimes daunting, but potential doesn’t make a wine unique–your experience of it does. And while we sometimes spend too much time lamenting the fact that pricing and decisions are tough in this marketplace because there is so much good wine out there, perhaps we just need to take a moment celebrate that there is so much good wine out there.

- Ryan Moses, Key Accounts Manager and Bordeaux Specialist