Bordeaux's Resurgence: World-Class Wines at Prices That Still Make Sense

I had one of those conversations today that reminded me why Bordeaux has been at the center of K&L’s identity for so long.

It was with Clyde Beffa, which is always a good place to start when the topic is Bordeaux. There are few people anywhere who have tasted more, bought more, or understood the market with more clarity over the last five decades. The subject was the newly released 2025 Malescot-St-Exupéry, Margaux 95-97TWP 95-96JS, one of the first 2025s to really stop me in my tracks—not just because of the wine, but because of what it says about Bordeaux today.

The price? $49.99.

Why Malescot-St-Exupéry at $49.99 Tells the Whole Story

That number immediately took me back to early 2016, when I had just started with K&L, and the 2015 Malescot was released during En Primeur. I still remember the excitement around that offer. Off the heels of their reference-point 2009 vintage—one of the great modern Malescots, a former Wine of the Year and now a wine that trades around $150—the 2015 came in at $49.99. At the time, it felt ridiculous. Not in a “good deal” kind of way, but in the sense that it was almost hard to believe a Margaux of that pedigree, from an estate clearly operating at such a high level, could still be offered for that price.

Customers agreed. It became one of our best-ever sellers.

What is remarkable is not just that Malescot has maintained that same magic touch in Margaux. In many ways, the wines have only become more refined, more consistent, and more complete. The farming is better, the precision is better, the understanding of extraction and balance is better, and the best recent vintages have shown a level of polish that puts Malescot firmly among the properties that over-deliver relative to their classification.

And yet here we are again: $49.99.

That is not nostalgia. That is the market talking.

For me, Malescot is just one example—an important one, because it is so easy to understand—but really just a drop in the bucket. Bordeaux today is in one of the most consumer-friendly positions I have seen since I began buying, selling, and writing about these wines. There has been a lot of noise around the category in recent years, from En Primeur pricing to inventory levels to shifting demand in global markets. But strip away the noise, and what remains is incredibly compelling: some of the finest wines in the world, from historic estates, in legitimately great vintages, being offered at prices that often feel disconnected from the quality in the bottle.

This is the resurgence of Bordeaux—not necessarily because prices are rising or the market is suddenly euphoric, but because the wines have never been better, and the opportunity for the consumer has rarely been clearer.

Look at what is available today.

The Best Bordeaux You Can Buy Right Now

The 2022 Malartic-Lagravière, Pessac-Léognan $59.99 99JD 97JS 96DC 96JA 95CK 95VN 95WE is one of the greatest wines ever made at that estate, and that is not faint praise. Pessac-Léognan has been on a tear, and Malartic has become one of the appellation’s most reliable overachievers, producing wines that combine the depth and polish of modern Bordeaux with the smoke, gravel, and mineral character that make the best Graves so distinctive. In a vintage like 2022, where concentration came naturally, the challenge was to preserve freshness and detail. Malartic did exactly that. The result is a wine that can stand alongside bottles many multiples of the price, yet it remains within reach for collectors building a serious cellar.

Then there is 2019 Lynch-Bages, Pauillac $159.99 100JD 99VN 97DC 97JA 97JS 97TWI 97WE 96WA 96WS. This is a benchmark Pauillac in a benchmark vintage, and one of the defining wines of the modern era at the property. Lynch has always occupied a special place in the Bordeaux landscape: not a First Growth, but often bought, cellared, and talked about like one. The best vintages combine Cabernet-driven power with that unmistakable Pauillac signature—cassis, graphite, cedar, tobacco, and a structure built for decades. The 2019 is one of those wines that reminds you why people fall in love with Bordeaux in the first place. It has the pedigree, the critical acclaim, the longevity, and the sheer presence of a blue-chip collectible, but compared with the top names of the Médoc, it still offers a relatively sane point of entry.

On the Right Bank, 2019 Canon, St-Émilion $139.99 100JA 100TWI 98JD 98VN 97DC 97IWR 97JS 97WA 95WS tells another part of the story. Canon is no longer a secret—those days are gone—but it remains one of the great success stories of contemporary Bordeaux. The estate’s position on the limestone plateau of St-Émilion gives the wines a singular combination of fragrance, precision, and mineral drive. The 2019 is not just a great Canon; it is one of the wines that helped cement the château’s current standing among the elite of the Right Bank. At $139.99, this is not inexpensive in the abstract, but in the context of what comparable world-class, ageworthy, 100-point-level wines cost in Burgundy, Napa, Tuscany, or even elsewhere in Bordeaux, it is still an extraordinary proposition.

The same can be said for 2016 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Pessac-Léognan $89.99 97JD 97JS 97VN 96DC 96WE 96WS. This is one of my favorite examples to bring up when people ask where the true connoisseur values are in Bordeaux. Domaine de Chevalier is never flashy. It is not trying to win on power alone, and it rarely shouts. But in great vintages, it delivers a kind of class, restraint, and ageworthy complexity that is increasingly hard to find. The 2016 is a thrilling wine—deep, structured, mineral, and built on the classic Pessac-Léognan architecture of dark fruit, tobacco, gravel, and smoke. It is a wine for people who love Bordeaux not just for richness, but for nuance. In today’s market, that kind of pedigree is exactly what serious buyers should be looking for.

And then there is Giscours.

Few wines better represent Bordeaux’s current momentum than 2022 Giscours, Margaux $99.99 98JS 97JD 96DC 96WA 96TWI 96VN 96WE 95JA 95WS. Long a K&L favorite, this Margaux property has always had a devoted following here, but recent vintages have taken the château to another level. The 2022 has all the hallmarks of a modern classic: depth, polish, aromatics, and that unmistakable Margaux lift. It is powerful, but not heavy; polished, but not anonymous. It has the kind of energy that makes you stop and ask, “Why haven’t we been buying more Giscours all along?” With the recognition it has received, that may soon be a question of the past. But even now, the wine remains a remarkable buy relative to its stature and acclaim.

Léoville-Poyferré is another perfect case study. The 2019 Léoville-Poyferré, St-Julien $99.99 98JD 97JA 97VN 96DC 96WA 96WS is everything people love about this château: generous, textured, layered, and unmistakably St-Julien, but with a plushness and charm that make it one of the most immediately appealing wines among the great Left Bank names. Poyferré has long been the most sumptuous of the Léovilles, and in 2019 that signature is on full display. It is ripe without losing balance, polished without losing structure, and serious without becoming austere. In a world where top-tier Cabernet-based wines routinely stretch into eye-watering territory, 2019 Léoville-Poyferré still feels like one of the smartest cellar buys in Bordeaux.

Finally, 2022 La Gaffelière, St-Émilion $89.99 99JD 99VN 97JS 97WA 95-97WE 96DC 96JA 96WS deserves its place in this conversation. This is one of the great Right Bank successes of the vintage, and the estate’s position on classic St-Émilion limestone gives the wine a sense of energy and refinement that is thrilling. The 2022 is deep and luxurious, but also sculpted and precise, with the Cabernet Franc component bringing lift, florality, and structure. La Gaffelière has been on a terrific run, and this vintage may be the finest modern expression yet. For collectors looking beyond the handful of Right Bank names whose prices have already entered another universe, this is exactly the kind of wine that makes Bordeaux so compelling right now.

What This Moment Actually Means for Collectors

That is the broader point. Bordeaux is not short on great wines. It never has been. What is different today is the relationship between quality, reputation, and price. In so many other categories, the best wines have become almost entirely aspirational. The conversation starts with scarcity and ends with allocation. Bordeaux, by contrast, still offers scale, history, transparency, and access. You can buy wines from legendary estates, in great vintages, with decades of cellar potential, and in many cases you can still do it without feeling like the market has completely left the consumer behind.

That is not to say every Bordeaux is a deal. Of course not. There are wines that pushed too hard on pricing, and there are campaigns that left collectors cold. But the correction has created opportunity, and it is showing up everywhere: in back-vintage pre-arrivals, in top 2019s that are just beginning to reveal their greatness, in 2022s that will define the modern era, and now in early 2025 releases like Malescot that remind us what smart Bordeaux buying can look like.

For years, people have asked when Bordeaux would become exciting again. I would argue that it already is. The excitement just looks different now. It is not a speculative frenzy. It is not chasing labels for the sake of chasing labels. It is the ability to buy great wine, from great estates, in great vintages, at prices that reward knowledge and patience.

That has always been where K&L shines. Clyde understood it long before most people did. Our Bordeaux program was built on finding those moments where quality and price intersect in a way that feels almost too good to last. The 2015 Malescot was one of those moments. The 2025 Malescot, at the same $49.99 price ten years later, feels like another.

And this time, it is not alone.

From Malartic-Lagravière and Domaine de Chevalier in Pessac-Léognan, to Giscours and Malescot in Margaux, to Lynch-Bages and Léoville-Poyferré on the Left Bank, to Canon and La Gaffelière on the limestone of St-Émilion, Bordeaux is offering a breadth of world-class wine that few regions can match—and almost none can match at these prices.

For collectors, this is a moment to be opportunistic. For longtime Bordeaux drinkers, it is a reminder of why the region earned its place in the cellar to begin with. And for anyone who has drifted away from Bordeaux, or assumed the category had become too expensive, too complicated, or too old-fashioned, I would say this: take another look.

The wines are better than ever. The pricing is more compelling than it has been in years. And Bordeaux, once again, is giving us exactly what it has always done at its best—a world-class wine experience that rewards both patience and perspective.

That is a resurgence worth paying attention to.

- Ryan Moses, K&L Bordeaux Buyer

Pocket Guide: The Best Quality for the Money from Bordeaux’s Recent Vintages

2025 Malescot-St-Exupéry, Margaux $49.99
2022 Malartic-Lagravière, Pessac-Léognan $59.99
2019 Lynch-Bages, Pauillac $159.99
2019 Canon, St-Émilion $139.99
2016 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Pessac-Léognan $89.99
2022 Giscours, Margaux $99.99
2019 Léoville-Poyferré, St-Julien $99.99
2022 La Gaffelière, St-Émilion $89.99