Bordeaux 2023: Our Top Picks
Cru Wine Recommends: Our Favourites from Bordeaux 2023
Having tasted around 200 wines in Bordeaux, the quality exceeded our expectations. Tasting this year was essential, as with so many nuances, you needed to speak to producers and taste the wines to understand the 2023 fully. The overall success of the vintage is a testament to the advances in viticulture at the estates. The best really are terroir-driven wines, where vigilance and risks in the vineyard were rewarded.
The below combine the hallmarks of the vintage, beautiful freshness and elegance with supple tannins that glide across the palate. The below wines are the ones we feel this vintage have hit the mark in terms of quality and terroir expression. Some are well-known classics, some are for laying down, some are for drinking earlier, but all are worthy of your attention.
WELL-KNOWN CLASSICS
Château Margaux
97-99 Points – Cru Wine
The 2023 Margaux is a strong contender for wine of the vintage and couldn’t be more different to its 2022 counterpart, especially at a whole 1.5% less in alcohol. Cool, fresh red and purple fruits are revealed with aeration along with subtle spices and rose petals. The palate is supremely refined, with incredible concentration of fruit that feels weightless and elegant, and is framed by satin textured tannins and fresh acidity. This is what Bordeaux is all about!
Château Mouton-Rothschild
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
This jumps out of the glass in classic Mouton fashion, with sweet aromatic black fruit, chocolate and subtle florality. The fruit on the palate is cool, fresh and precise, following the style of the 2023 vintage and it has great energy and overall balance.
Château Lafite-Rothschild
97-99 Points – Cru Wine
A classic Lafite that is reminiscent of the incredible 2016 at the same stage. With aeration subtle notes of fresh black fruit, graphite and saline minerality come to the fore. On the palate everything is beautifully balanced, with excellent concentration of fruit, silky tannins and fresh acidity. A delicious Lafite with pitch perfect typicity and another affirmation of what a unique terroir this is. If it were needed!
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
An outstanding wine with quintessential Pauillac aromas of cassis, graphite and cedar, intertwined with subtle smoky notes and violet. The texture is beautiful with the silkiest of tannins complimenting the perfumed, fresh, cool black and purple fruit. With just 13% alcohol this is very classic, yet also showcases just how good modern winemaking in Bordeaux is today.
Château La Conseillante
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
This is a worthy follow up to the incredible 2022 Conseillante, but where that wine was more about power, the 2023 shows a more elegant, pretty and aromatic style. It has an unbelievably sexy nose of black cherries, blackberry, violet and sweet spice. On the palate there is a beautiful sweetness to the fruit which is perfectly ripe and framed by pleasantly grainy tannins. This manages to balance so many different elements in one striking, harmonious package. I suspect this will be irresistible in future.
Château Montrose
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
Montrose have produced some really delicious wines this year, but the grand vin is a serious step up in quality and one of the best we tasted all week .No issues here with mildew given the vineyard’s proximity to the Gironde and the cooling breezes it enjoys. The nose is quite subdued, but you can sense the concentration and power that is coiled there. On the palate it is incredibly dark, black fruited and vertical on account of it having one of the highest proportions (75%) of Cabernet Sauvignon of any Montrose. Classic Saint-Estèphe structure and power, this is undoubtedly up there with the very best wines of the vintage.
THE SWEET SPOT
Château Canon
97-99 Points – Cru Wine
This is classic Canon with incredibly detailed aromas of blackberries, raspberries, black cherry and rose petal. The medium to full bodied palate has incredible drive, energy and balance, and the complexity of flavours matches what the nose promised. It finishes long and saline with a clear stony freshness form this great limestone terroir, and a real sense of place. Unsurprisingly another beautiful vintage of Canon.
Château Rauzan-Segla
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
When visiting the Château we were lucky enough to taste this in barrel and understand first-hand the subtleties of the influence of new and old oak on the texture and flavour of the wine. This is a big wine, with a stunning nose of vivid red and black fruits. This beautiful purity of raspberry and blackcurrant comes in layered waves on the palate, all balanced with excellent freshness and chalky tannins. One of the best wines of the vintage and a favourite for the whole team.
Château Pavie-Macquin
95-97 Points – Cru Wine
This is another great vintage for Pavie-Macquin, which is going to represent superb value as always. The limestone terroir really comes through in its freshness and energy and compliments the beautifully delineated flavours of blueberries, violet, black berries and raspberry. It has beautiful balance and an incredibly pure, effortless feel to it.
Domaine de Chevalier, Rouge
95-97 Points – Cru Wine
The Domaine de Chevalier 2023 is such a delicious wine. Concentrated red and black fruit, with dried herbs and subtle spice make for a very complex aromatic profile. The quality of fruit and tannins is so impressive and although it has a beautifully fruit forward feel, gliding across the palate, there is real tension, energy and structure which should see it age gracefully for many years. This should be great value on release and comes highly recommended.
UNBEATABLE VALUE
Château Brane-Cantenac
94-96 Points – Cru Wine
Henri Lurton’s Brane-Cantenac has been firing on all cylinders in recent years, yet the price for this wine still remains seriously attractive for drinkers looking to pick up a characterful Bordeaux, for a very keen price given its quality. The 2023 is soft, silky and very Margaux with its striking perfumed aromatics.
Château Siran
92-94 Points – Cru Wine
Super ripe red and black fruit jump out on the bouquet of this flashy and flamboyant Siran. It’s a concentrated, powerful wine that is all about hedonistic enjoyment. Not particularly indicative of the style of the 2023 vintage, but great fun, and ultimately great value all the same.
Château Laroque
93-95 Points – Cru Wine
This has to be the most consistently great value wine in Bordeaux over the last four or so years. It has the black cherry fruited character of a lot of Right Bank wines in this vintage, plus the cool freshness, energy and drive that typifies the best wines too. There is simply no excuse for not picking up a few cases of this for future drinking!
DELECTABLE WHITES & SWEETS
Château Suduiraut
96-98 Points – Cru Wine
Goodness, gracious me, this is a stunning offering. Amazing nose of exotic mango, apricot, honey, marzipan and botrytis. The concentration here is something to behold and makes itself felt on the never-ending finish. If its this good already we can’t wait to see how it will develop over the years. In this very impressive vintage for sweet wines, this could well be the best of them all.
Château Doisy-Däene
94-96 Points – Cru Wine
A personal favourite and a very consistent performer year on year, the 2023 vintage of Doisy-Daene has turned out beautifully. It has great balance between its ripe, citrus fruit, crisp acidity and complex notes of botrytis, vanilla and marzipan. Delicious!
Château Smith Haut Laffite
95-97 Points – Cru Wine
Always a highlight in any given vintage. Very complex with lovely ripe apricot, pear and citrus fruit backed up by some Sauvignon Blanc herbaceous tones and spicy oak. The best dry white of the week’s tastings.
Domaine de Chevalier, Blanc
95-97 Points – Cru Wine
Very aromatic and expressive with lovely citrus fruit and mineral notes on the nose. Great concentration of fruit with lovely waxy Semillon texture and a long, mineral finish. Hard to choose between this and Smith Haut Laffite for top white of the vintage.
