Cellar Management, Random Musings

New Thoughts on Buying Young Bordeaux

Seven years ago I wrote Too Old for Young Wine. At the time I had decided that despite being just 46 years old, I probably did not need to buy much more Bordeaux. My cellar was well stocked with bottles going back to the mid eighties and frankly the idea of buying wines that would need twenty five years in the cellar did not seem very pragmatic.

Of course this was predicated on the fact that some of my very favorite Bordeaux were Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon dominant wines, that needed decades to come around. Wines like Leoville Barton, Lynch Bages, Montrose, Ducru Beaucaillou, Cos d’Estournel and Pichon Baron to name a few.

Recently though I have opened some wines from the 2005 vintage. 2005 was a classic vintage and the top wines might outlive me. Knowing this I have been selective and only opened bottles from the Right Bank. These wines tend to have a greater percentage of Merlot. To my taste Merlot is more approachable at a younger age than Cabernet Sauvignon.

Both a 2005 Fleur Cardinale and 2005 Bellefont-Belcier opened recently were absolutely stunning. In retrospect my Too Old for Young Wine blog post should have differentiated between Left and Right Bank wines. Furthermore I should have differentiated between Classified Growths and Cru Bourgeois.

I have not bought 2016 Leoville Barton or Lynch Bages but I recently went out and purchased 2016 Fleur Cardinale and 2016 Bellefont-Belcier and 2016 Chateau Bellevue. If these bottles age like their 2005 counterparts I will be able to enjoy these around 2030 and I’ll still only be a sprite 63 years old.

It really is fun to be buying new release Bordeaux again!

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2 thoughts on “New Thoughts on Buying Young Bordeaux

  1. Tom. After tasting a number of very sleek, balanced and enjoyableyoung minor 2016s a couple of years back at an Bordeaux Oxygène event in Chicago I enthusiastically purchased the 2016 vintage and I’m older than you are!
    No notes, sorry.

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