Many thrilling wines have been made in the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux, and with significant price-drops having been seen across all communes, we wholeheartedly believe there is good reason to embrace this En Primeur campaign.

Our Impression of the 2023 Wines

2023 is not a homogenous vintage, so tasting these wines to assess quality was vitally important when putting together our selections. There are properties that were impacted by mildew, and others where choice of picking date, or yields that were too high, have resulted in wines that lack flesh and concentration. However, the best wines show excellent quality and will give huge pleasure. They are strikingly pure and finely aromatic, with beautiful balance of density and freshness. Across the region, there are lower alcohols and higher acidities than many vintages we have seen in the last decade.

Why Buy these 2023s En Primeur?

The thirst for buying Bordeaux En Primeur has been reducing year on year, a fact finally acknowledged by Châteaux owners this year. They needed to bring new energy into the En Primeur system, and provide a renewed incentive for customers to engage with buying these wines at such an early stage. Despite the notable quality of the 2023s in our range, prices have fallen (in some cases by more then 30%, compared with the 2022), with many down to the levels at which the 2019s were released. As such, we highly recommend the following as early, En Primeur purchases.

The 2023 Growing Season

After a fairly wet winter, replenishing the water table, the first leaves appeared on the vines in early March. Bud break started at the end of that month, being homogenous and promising a good crop. April and May brought challenges, as alternating warm and cooler weather, with high levels of humidity, were the perfect conditions for mildew. Strict vigilance was essential during these months, with the Entre-Deux-Mers, Margaux and Pessac-Léognan being most impacted by disease pressure.

Fortunately, a period of fine weather arrived in late May, which favoured flowering. What followed was a summer that was warm and cloudy, with occasional, light rainfall. “Contrasting with 2022, where the heat sometimes blocked maturation, we had very a linear summer in 2023,” said Frédéric Castéjà of Château Batailley. “It was not particularly hot, allowing for very steady maturation and no stress. This allowed the grapes to slowly build their sugars whilst retaining a good level of natural acidity.” By this stage there was vigorous vineyard growth and potential production. Many properties chose to green harvest and meticulously groom their vines, in order to reduce yields, and foster grape ripening.

Two, beneficial, late-summer heat waves, in the third week of August and early September, curbed vegetative growth, forcing the vines to focus on building grape ripeness. “The question then was: when to harvest,” Thomas Duroux of Château Palmer told us. “Each parcel of vines had to be observed very carefully, with the berries being tasted every day. Rain was forecast for 21st September. Should we harvest everything before the rain, or wait longer?” Each property had its own choice to make, based on their terroir and when optimal maturity was achieved. Thomas continued: “At Palmer, after a quick harvest of the Merlots, which would rapidly lose aromatic freshness and build too much sugar if left even for one day too long, we picked some of the Cabernets. The rain then came, and we stopped picking for a week, before restarting to bring in the last Cabernets. These had really benefited from the extra time of the vines to bring them to full maturity.”