Southwold 2016s – left-bank reds

Bottles of left bank claret at the 2020 Southwold-on-Thames tasting

The third, last and most comprehensive report on this year's Southwold-on-Thames blind tasting of 264 2016s from Bordeaux's best addresses. See also right-bank reds and whites. For all our Bordeaux 2016 coverage, see this guide.

There were some lovely wines among the 124 left-bank 2016 reds we tasted this year. Tasting blind meant that we were not prejudiced by different labels’ reputations and rank. The result for me was that I was hugely enthusiastic about some second wines, even preferring Rauzan’s second wine Ségla (not yet released) to the grand vin. In the group ranking of this Margaux...