On January 21 James conducted a Tasting Interview over Zoom with Eric Kohler of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau l'Evangile and Chateau Duhart-Milon to taste their 2018 wines, the latest to be released. As you can read in James' special report on the Bordeaux 2018 vintage here, it was a great vintage, with much to admire and enjoy in the wines. But as Kohler describes here, the growing season was "unbalanced" with permanent rains from May to mid-July followed by hot and dry conditions later, causing shock in the vineyards. So the challenges were significant.
"But the great surprise was that during the aging, all the wines went back to a classic style," said Kohler. This was especially the case for the Duhart-Milon 2018, which showed a classic Bordeaux style, despite being a very non-classic vintage. James commented that he thought the Duhart-Milon was probably the best ever made. The Carruades de Lafite 2018 was a 'cooler' wine, which came about through great precision in the vineyard, throughout the year, not only at harvest time, allowing the terroir's style to come through. "It will always be a second wine, but we are finding a great balance between the concentration and precision," said Kohler. The Chateau Lafite 2018 - with a new bottle and label - showed the usual tobacco and blackcurrant notes, but also this year showed graphite and stone notes too, James noted, showing how the vineyards had been fine-tuned in this difficult year especially. And l'Evangile 2018 was a rich wine but very balanced, and despite frost and mildew in the growing season and only half a harvest, came through in a classic style, with plush fruits and fine tannins.
Check out the video above for the full conversation, and head to JamesSuckling.com for the wine ratings.