25 May The big guns of Bordeaux are at long last coming out with their 2016 prices – generally 10 to 15% more in euros than the 2015s, so much more for those paying in sterling. But wine merchants in both the UK and Hong Kong report lukewarm interest in the whole en primeur process, this year protracted by the small quantities released by many châteaux. As a leading fine-wine trader put it, ‘if we can get it, we can’t sell it; if there’s demand for it, we can’t get it’. And this for the best quality Bordeaux vintage to have emerged since 2010.
1 May Please note that I am continuing to add to our tasting articles listed below. To find the most recently added tasting notes, go to our tasting note database, in the left-hand menu choose France in the Country field, Bordeaux in the Region field and in the Date tasted fields start perhaps with 26 April and end with the date you are searching on.
25 April Today we publish our last major Bordeaux 2016 primeurs tasting article, bringing the grand total of tasting notes to 614, 609 of them written by me. Now that I have tasted as many lesser reds as I have, I am increasingly aware of how good many of these are, as I wrote in last Saturday’s free article. I think 2016 will be a vintage in which there is no absolute need to buy too high up the quality scale, on either right or left bank, in order to benefit from this vintage’s qualities of ripeness, freshness and structure.
11 April This guide provides you with links to all our articles about this alluring but very varied vintage, new ones added when the article is published. The picture is of all the paperwork I brought back from my tasting trip to Bordeaux earlier this month. My many tasting articles are scheduled for 12 to 25 April. I tasted several wines more than once but, since I was using one master spreadsheet to record all my tasting notes, was able to combine all impressions into one note for each wine.
As I write, on 11 April, I still have many less famous wines to taste and expect the total number of wines reviewed to be greater than 500.
TASTING ARTICLES (most recently published first)
2016 bordeaux at 10 years – left-bank reds 27 February 2026
2016 bordeaux at 10 years – right-bank reds and sweet whites 26 February 2026
Southwold 2016s – left-bank reds 6 February 2020
Southwold 2016s – right-bank reds 5 February 2020
Southwold 2016s – whites 4 February 2020
Bordeaux 2018 tasted with preceding vintages 23 May 2019
Bordeaux 2016 in bottle (Tasting articles) 31 October 2018
2016's solid crus bourgeois (Tasting articles) 9 October 2018
Bordeaux’s last four vintages compared (Tasting articles) 22 May 2018
Dry whites (Tasting articles) 25 April 2017
Sweet whites (Tasting articles) 24 April 2017
Pessac-Léognan and Graves reds (Tasting articles) 21 April 2017
Rest of the Médoc (Tasting articles) 20 April 2017
St-Estèphe (Tasting articles) 19 April 2017
Pauillac (Tasting articles) 18 April 2017
St-Julien (Tasting articles) 18 April 2017
Margaux, Moulis and Listrac (Tasting articles) 17 April 2017
AOC Bordeaux and Côtes, Fronsac (Tasting articles) 14 April 2017
St-Émilion and satellites (Tasting articles) 13 April 2017
Pomerol and Lalande-de-Pomerol (Tasting articles) 12 April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLES (most recently published first)
David v Goliath in 2016 bordeaux (Free for all) 28 February 2026
How do the last four Bordeaux vintages compare? (Free for all) 25 May 2019
Bordeaux – which vintages to tackle (Free for All) 3 November 2018
Bordeaux 2016 – left bank lightens up (Free for all) 22 April 2017
Bordeaux 2016 – the right bank’s waiting game (Free for all) 14 April 2017
Bordeaux 2016 – the largest harvest since 2006 (Free for all) 17 February 2017
Bordeaux2016 – the Blatch report (Free for all) 26 January 2017
Bordeaux 2016 – quality and quantity (Free for all) 12 October 2016
Bordeaux 2016 – refreshment at last (Free for all) 21 September 2016
2016 Bordeaux harvest underway (Free for all) 6 September 2016
Bordeaux 2016's bone-dry summer (Free for all) 17 August 2016
