“The best 2023s exhibit the fully ripe tannins and suave, seamless mouthfeels of a sunny vintage such as 2019; yet their vibrant aromas and flavors, evocative of fresh fruits and flowers, are more indicative of a cooler year.”
– William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

After returning from my fifth visit to Bordeaux to taste the new vintage (where’s my 5-timer robe??), I can say with confidence there is a lot to like about the 2023 vintage. This is a vintage like no other, where the best wines are exciting, vibrant, and emotionally thrilling, capturing the best of warm-vintage depth-of-fruit and the alluring qualities of cool-vintage freshness and minerality. The wines were damn delicious, balanced, harmonious and, honestly, a joy to taste. To be clear, it’s no “vintage of the century” with hundred-year aging capabilities, but exceptional, complex, and charismatic wines abound, and with K&L curating the best-of-the-best for the futures campaign, there will be no shortage of outstanding options across the vintage. We await the château pricing, which we hear will be 20% to 35% below 2022, and, if that is the case, I am very bullish on 2023.

What Was Good?

The wines we couldn’t stop talking about over the last seven days included Canon, Château Margaux, Pontet Canet, Haut-Bailly, and, my wine of the vintage, La Conseillante. There is another layer of overperformers which includes the likes of Pichon Baron, Branaire Ducru, personal-fave Pavie Macquin, Trotanoy, and fan-favorite Barde-Haut among (many, many) others. All these wines share a common denominator of seamless harmony along with an exciting “it” factor–you know it when you taste it! Beyond balance, the best wines of 2023 show their sense of place–loads of mineral flavors coming through loud and clear from the chalk of the St-Emilion limestone plateau to the gravel of Pessac to the stony granite of Pauillac.

For me, the communes of Margaux, St-Julien, and St-Emilion were standouts with great consistency up and down their appellations, while consumers will want to be choosy in Pomerol, St-Estephe, and Pessac, where the highs were higher (La Conseillante and Haut-Bailly, for example) but the lows were lower.

“The best reds show balance and freshness with deep center palates of ripe fruit and a complement of polished tannins…they are so Bordeaux in their nature with their tensioned mouthfeels and energetic finishes.”
– James Suckling

The consensus is that 2023 is a “Cabernet” vintage, though the many wines from the Merlot-based regions that were successful don’t follow that line. (Our interpretation of that is Merlot yields were down due to strict selection from some mildew issues, leaving many estates to use higher percentages of Cabernet.) As a result, there is high tannic structure in the majority of the wines, but most are ripe, suave, supple, and quite integrated at this early stage. This structure complemented the copious amounts of acidity, making for wines that were not only easy to taste, but have the attractive combination of both drinkability and ageability. We also heard the term “classic” thrown around quite a bit, which speaks to the buoyant and terroir-based nature of these wines, but also important to note that alcohol levels were down about 1% overall from 2022.

“…due to a cool global economy and two consecutive lukewarm en primeur campaigns, the 2023s may be released at prices as interesting as any we have seen since 2019.
– William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Should I Buy 2023?

Again, I am bullish if the price is right. Any adjustment in price here is not reflective of lower quality–this is Bordeaux finally adjusting to market forces (fingers crossed!). Beyond the elite collectibles, there are definitely a few dozen overachievers (Super Seconds, Value Buys, Rising Stars) that are attractive cellar adds for long time Bordeaux fans and newbies alike. I do recommend for those wines that are at the top of their game, and for collectors that have favorites, keep verticals, or are looking for hard to source large format: now is the time to lock those in.

Watch this space for daily releases, ratings, pricing and my personal recommendations–the campaign kicks off Tuesday!

Cheers!

- Tracey Rose, Key Accounts Specialist