THE VERDICT
This was a great tasting,’ opened Jane Anson. ‘I was really impressed with the level. I was expecting it to be good, but I’m happy we weren’t disappointed.’ Despite not having such high hopes initially – thinking the 2015s would be ‘out of balance’ or ‘excessive and overly alcoholic’ – fellow judges Tim Triptree MW and Andy Howard MW agreed.
‘The quality of the 2015s really surprised me. With some exceptions, they are well balanced, with ripe fruit and very easy to drink,’ said Triptree. Howard also found them ‘balanced with restraint’. He addded: ‘I was expecting them to be big and bruising but I was very impressed’.
In total 111 wines were tasted, split very evenly between the two Right Bank appellations of St-Emilion and Pomerol, but despite their close proximity Anson found the differences between the regions’ wines ‘striking’.
‘For people trying to decide what to buy, there are generally two styles,’ she said. ‘In Pomerol, the wines have a lower acidity with plusher tannins and fruits, compared with slightly higher austerity in some of the St-Emilions – they’re delicious but you see the minerality more and that definitely came through in the tasting.’
When asked for a preference, all of the judges chose Pomerol, as it did slightly better overall and held more interest. While there were excellent wines from St-Emilion too, the quality was more variable as a whole.
This is reflected in the results, with six out of the eight wines ranked Outstanding coming from Pomerol – even though the top-scoring wine of the tasting was a St-Emilion.
With regard to scores and drinkability, Anson highlighted the different criteria for judging. ‘If we’re giving a high score to something that can be drunk soon, it’s got to be really juicy, easy to drink and approachable. You want a wine that people can open and be happy with; if that’s the case, then it deserves the high score.’
However, she noted that many of these wines were quite closed up at the moment. ‘We were probably underscoring some of the biggest names, as they will be the ones with most structure and therefore the most closed now,’ she explained. ‘There are some which are ready to drink, but the majority still need another three or four years as a rule, before they’re totally ready – and there are definitely wines that will age and improve with another 10, 15 or 20 years in bottle.’
In terms of the styles on offer, Triptree noted: ‘There are some really exotic, fruit-forward, exuberant, opulent styles here and there are also the more elegant, restrained styles; so it pays to read the tasting notes.’ Howard found a few wines that were
