The Bordeaux En-primeur scores and prices are hitting the airwaves thick and fast at the moment with the buzz around the 2022 vintage certainly drawing the most attention to the region since the famed 2016 vintage releases. The key words summing up the new releases are “surprisingly good” and “variable quality” … so certainly not a homogeneous vintage across appellations by any means.
I recently caught up with owner Natalie Meyre from Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin and was suitably impressed by their new 2022 En-primeur offering, that is without doubt their most impressive vintage since their seriously good 2016 red. Bordeaux is not just about the high profile top 50 Cru Classe Chateaux, and tasting the Cap Leon Veyrin 2022 is a stark reminder of the exceptional quality and value still to be found in this wonderful region.
Tasting with Nathalie Meyre from Vignoble Meyre.
Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin 2022, Cru Bourgeois Superieur, Listrac-Medoc, 13.5% Abv.
A beautifully deep purple-black colour draws you in to reveal expressive aromatics of pressed violets, sweet black currants, stewed black cherries, baked black plums and an attractive top note of sweet grilled herbs that mixes with hints of sweet black tea, cherry tobacco and dusty graphite spice. There is wonderful energy and power in the mouth with all the fruit concentration concertinaed by bright crunchy fresh acids and suave dry gravelly tannins. The oaking smells and tastes suitably expensive but is all in perfect balance for what is a very impressive young wine. Probably my favourite release from this Chateau since their stellar 2016. Chapeau Julien Meyre!!
One of the most exciting Bordeaux finds over the past couple of years has been the wines of Julien Meyre who owns three Chateau in the Medoc. Of the three Chateau, his Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin is undoubtedly the flagship property boasting blends packed with dense, powerful Cabernet Sauvignon fruit supported by fleshy, opulent Merlot. Recent vintages have garnered impressive 90-plus point scores from Neal Martin at Vinous as well as from James Suckling.
But there is another more modest wine that has recently caught my attention and this is the Le Petit Leon that has been styled as a de-facto second wine of Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin even though some grapes are bought in for this wine. But the quality is outstanding and the presentation top drawer! Certainly one to look out for if you are on the hunt for quality at a great price. (Retail circa £15pb)
Tasting in London recently with Julien Meyre… followed by some obligatory oysters!
Le Petit Leon de Cap Leon Veyrin 2019, Bordeaux, 13.5% Abv.
This 50% Cabernet Sauvignon / 50% Merlot blend is a serious offering that shows intricate aromatics of damson plum, black currant, sweet cherry tobacco with underlying notes of sweet cedar oak, bramble berry and graphite spice. The palate strikes an excellent balance between silky black fruit depth, a creamy texture and broody red berry fruit power. Impressive balance and an all round generous personality with a vibrant fresh tangy persistence. A delicious wine from a block buster vintage. Drink on release and over 3 to 5+ years.
With the Union des Grands Crus Bordeaux and its members deciding to suspend the 2019 En-Primeurs week that was scheduled to take place at the end of March in Bordeaux due to the coronavirus restrictions, I thought I would post these two wine reviews from the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux tasting in London yesterday, 12th March 2020.
Speaking to Gavin Quinney of Chateau Bauduc in the Entre-Deux-Mers, he states “’You’re joking – not another one?’ No, really, Bordeaux 2019 is a very good to excellent vintage. It wasn’t straightforward, with heat waves, drought and a rainy finish along the way, but Bordeaux enjoyed a long, dry summer and harvest with just enough rain, and no disasters like the late spring frost of 2017 or the significant losses to mildew that some growers experienced in 2018.”
At the top end, it’s becoming an embarrassment of riches. 2019 makes it six very good years in a row for the northern Haut-Médoc appellations of St-Julien, Pauillac and St-Estèphe, which were largely untouched by the 2017 frost and produced many fine 2014s, and likewise for the top estates on the plateau of Pomerol.
Bordeaux 2019 – 10 observations on the growing season: (Source: Gavin Quinney)
· A dry year with 25% less rain overall than the average up to the end of the harvest.
· A mild winter saw average rainfall in November, December and January, then a dry February and March.
· Spring rainfall (Q2) was close to the norm from April bud break through to June flowering.
· Some localised spring frosts and limited hail damage later on, though relatively small losses.
· Flowering in early June began well but a rainy, chilly spell led to uneven fruit set in many vineyards.
· No major disasters like the frost of April 2017 or the mildew that had a significant impact on multiple growers in 2018.
· A long, hot summer saw over three months of mostly fine weather from mid June to the fourth Sunday of September.
· Heat waves in late June and 40 ˚C (104 °F) in late July put some vines under pressure – though this was pre-ripening.
· Heavy rain on the last Friday in July, just after a heat wave, refreshed many vineyards just in time.
· Light rain in among the hot weather in August and mid September helped the vines.
Chateau La Croizille 2019, St Emilion Grand Cru
Plush, broadly aromatic but beautifully soft toned with dulcet notes pink musk, purple rock candy and black currant with a fabulously generous glycerol concentration, harmonious breadth and depth and a subtle, vanilla dusted, brûléed blueberry muffin finish. Delicious expression. Power with elegance.
(Wine Safari Score: 92-94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin Cru Bourgeois 2019, Listrac-Medoc
A complex nose layered with perfumed aromatics drifting from violets to cherry blossom, pink musk to cherry cola and dusty graphite minerality. Super focus and balance, this wine has beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon lines, a chiselled texture and fine mineral, gravelly tannins. The fruit concentration shows a seductive sweet sour mouth watering edge and fabulous black berry fruit persistence. Focused, intense and impressively linear. This should turn into an absolute star!
(Wine Safari Score: 92-93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Tasted along side the superb 2016 for added insight…
Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin Cru Bourgeois 2016, Listrac-Medoc
Beautifully deep dark broody nose with plenty of black cherry, black currant, earthy blueberry and hints of savoury, wild bramble berry fruits. Seamlessly plush concentration is lifted and electrified by bright, tangy acids before the finish melts away in the mouth to leave notes of sour plum, graphite, salty black liquorice and kirsch cherry liquor. Really very impressive wine that certainly lives up to this epic vintage’s top billing.
I have to admit that I have a love – hate relationship with Bordeaux. On the one hand I am intoxicated by the history, the grandeur and the incredible quality this amazing region is capable of producing. Yet on the other hand, I often find the mentality and commercial strategies of so many Chateaux owners and their chosen négociant channels infuriatingly difficult to comprehend. As a result, buying from Bordeaux has really started to evolve and over the past years, I find myself buying more and more wines directly from the Chateaux themselves, from genuine, rational, modest people who are just trying to run honest businesses making the very best wines their terroirs can deliver.
So when a good friend in Bordeaux recommended Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin, I stopped and took notice as most of the best buying decisions I have ever made have been as a result of friendly producers recommending the wines of friends, neighbours or colleagues. Château Cap Léon Veyrin has been family-owned since 1810 when the Château Cap Léon and the Veyrin estates were joined together. The word ‘Cap’ originally meant ‘head’. The vineyard of Cap Veyrin actually lies on the higher grounds of Listrac Médoc on Gravelly marl soils to the north and thus boasts ideal natural drainage and sun exposure.
With Julien in the Cap Ferret tasting wine and enjoying the Bordeaux summer sunshine.
Nathalie and Julien Meyre are now the 6th generation of this Médoc family of winegrowers to manage the property where family traditions are perpetuated with care. Their Chateau wines are dominated by an indicative blend of 60 % Merlot, 35 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 5 % Petit Verdot with ageing for 12 months in French oak barrels, 60% of which are normally new barrels. In addition to Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin, the Meyre family also own a fine little 15 hectare property in the Haut-Medoc near Cussac Fort Medoc called Chateau Julien where the average age of the vines are 40 years old.
The fabulous beaches of the Cap Ferret.
Over the summer, I managed to meet up with Julien Meyre on a sunny day in Cap Ferret on the Bordeaux coast where I tried to learn more about his family, the wines they produce and their future ambitions. The evolution of their wines is now happening at a swift pace with the more recent vintages receiving added guidance and fine tuning with the help of Michel Rolland, certainly one of the greatest tasters and blenders in the whole of Bordeaux. Just when I thought I was starting to lose faith in the “Bordeaux Project” then I meet another wonderful vigneron like Julien Meyre and taste some beautiful, characterful wines that serve to rekindle my love affair with one of the greatest wine regions in the world.
Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin 2015, Listrac Medoc, 13.5 Abv.
A fabulously serious expression from this up and coming Cru Bourgeois Chateau. The powerful 2015 blend shows an attractive nose of dark bramble berry fruits, blackberries infused with wood smoke, briary and dark black chocolate notes. The palate reveals fine structure and delineation, a cool medium body and lovely gravelly mineral tannins. Dense, compact and youthfully grippy, this wine shows a fine pedigree, an impressive tobacco-tinged length and a spicy, grainy textured finish. Drinking well now or cellar for 8 to 10 years.
(Wine Safari Score: 92 /100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Chateau Cap Leon Veyrin 2016, Listrac Medoc, 14 Abv.
The 2016 vintage is one of the greatest vintages in Bordeaux in 2 or 3 decades. With a little air, this wine starts to unwind and reveal a great aromatic presence with lifted layers of sweet violets and purple lavender perfume. The palate is rich, linear and super classical with an initially taut, powerful structure which relents with around 30 minutes of air to reveal a most suave, polished graphite mineral complexity with incredibly fine grained tannins, sleek fresh acids and a wonderful overall harmony. Grace and power for sure. The sweet black and blueberry fruits are opulent and fleshy yet held in perfect posture by the wine’s crisp acids and regal structure. A really beautiful expression of classical, mineral laden Listrac. Drink from 2021 to 2030+
(93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Chateau Julien 2015, Haut Medoc, 13.5 Abv.
This petit chateau is a real work of brilliance offering up the most seductive, fleshy, fragrant blueberry scented aromatics with a subtle kiss of vanilla pod and mocha spice. Medium to deep garnet purple, this wine is packed with fleshy bramble berry fruits, baked plums, blueberry crumble and a dusty, dried baking spice complexity. The tannins are soft and generous, plump and inviting adding extra ballast to the long, creamy, dense length. A very impressive wine for the price. Great to see that Bordeaux can still make wines that over deliver at a price point. Bravo Julien!
Greg Sherwood MW 