2024 Vintage: Scores and Overview

Our 2024 Vintage Tasting Report is here, after more than three weeks tasting through 750 wines from across the region. This week we are publishing around 500 wines, mainly the higher scores, covering all the classifieds, and a few key whites. The rest we will add next week. And remember, we are running a 15% discount throughout April and May for any new signups. Just use the code EP152025 – and please share with any Bordeaux lovers that you think might benefit.

For a deep dive into the scores (wines will continue to be added over the next week), you can find individual reports on:

Left Bank 2024 – over 320 wines
Right Bank 2024 – over 290 wines
Sweet and Dry Whites 2024 – over 130 wines

You can also find details on Yields and Weather, and two podcasts – the first an overview on the weather, and the second on first impressions after two weeks of tasting (we have a third coming up giving a more complete overview and introducing the report). And don’t forget the What’s New report, with all that you need to be the best informed person in the room on Bordeaux right now (also free to read). Along the way, we also gave two En Primeur spotlights to a new wine from Lascombes, and from a new estate in St Julien called Evoke.

One thing to note when reading my scores. I only give a range for 98-100 wines during En Primeur, although I didn’t have even one of these for the 2024 vintage. For the rest, I give a single point score. That makes me an outlier from other critics, but I believe it is more helpful for consumers. A range of 92-95+, for example, which I see regularly elsewhere, is simply not helpful when it comes to deciding whether or not to make an En Primeur purchase. Too wide a range and it’s meaningless, too narrow and I might as well make a decision. Where there is a likelihood of upscoring in bottle, I mention it in the tasting note.

Thoughts on the 2024 vintage

• In all, I would say the vintage was better than expected before I began the tastings, and it is clearly better than, for example, 2013 – and 2021 in the best cases. But it is not in the category of the greats.
• You can find many wines that have over-performed expectations, and as long as the prices give compelling reasons to buy, I am happy to recommend them. But pricing truly is key – châteaux surely have to recognise that recent En Primeur release prices have not been sustained in the marketplace, even for more successful vintages than this.
• My highest score was 97 for one red wine (L’Eglise Clinet), and for four whites (La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, Coutet, Pavillon Blanc and Les Champs Libres). I dropped right down to 80 for the lowest scores – no need to go lower than that in my opinion.
• There are more overall successes on the Right Bank than Left, simply because underripe Cabernet is very difficult to mask. There was better ripeness overall on the Right Bank, even if some estates had tell-tale sweetness of clumsy chaptilisation. But simply re-reading my tasting notes during the editing process confirms that I enjoyed more Right Bank reds – reflected in the scores, which drop down to 80 on the Left Bank, 84 on the Right Bank.
• White wines were a clear highlight, with some brilliant examples in both sweet and dry. Still 97 points was the highest that I gave (Mission Haut-Brion Blanc), but there was greater consistency and many excellent wines that are easy to recommend.
• Having said all that, the struggles were evident across the region, and it seems to me the year with the biggest gap between successes and the less-so since I began tasting En Primeur over 20 years ago.
• The best estates leaned in to the vintage, making lighter-weight elegant wines that will be ready to drink earlier than recent years, and that have lower alcohols – the idea, as many estates said, that this is in the zeitgeist of the moment is not entirely untrue…!
• Sadly, it really was a vintage for terroir and money – many of the lower scores are given to estates that are already suffering, and it’s hard not to feel bad about piling on the pressure – but my job is to let my subscribers not which wines to buy, and there really are choices to be made in vintages like this.
• Poor flowering and fruit set, mildew pressure and rain at key moments of the year all combined to give huge issues to overcome. Those who were able to be reactive, work as part of a successful team, and be present in the vineyard clearly had an advantage.
• The summer months were dry and relatively warm, so any reports from châteaux that these ‘saved’ the vintage were true, at least to a certain extent. The issue was that they still weren’t hugely sunny, so the rain in September hurt more than it otherwise might have done.
• With the exception of a tiny number of wines, I would not recommend heading to 2nd wines in the 2024 vintage.
• Acidity can be sharp and emphasise the tannins, or it can add juice, muscles and salinity. The reality is that you are not going to find wines without acidity at all, but some have used it to their advantage – and it is worth remembering that high acidity vintages are not unusual in Bordeaux, and often have the ability to age extremely well, giving great pleasure in years to come.

Why was this not 2013 (or 2021)?

• The two summer months of July and August 2024 were dry enough to synthesise polyphenols and anthocyanins, with enough water stress to give the concentration that lead to the deep colours that are typical in the final wines (high acidities/low ph help here too, which the bright reflections). This wasn’t true in 2013, and even in 2021 there was less hydric stress than in 2024.
• September rains also fell during cooler temperatures so the rot didn’t spread as fast as in 2013. Still of course some dilution but the colour and structure of the wines had already climbed over the summer months.
• This year 2024 had an exceptionally long growing cycle, after early budding that began on average on March 21 (early April in 2013). Even so, it could have done with another week or so for the Cabs to get fully ripe in most cases.
• If you look at temperatures overall, it was a warm vintage (true across Europe) even though there was a deficit of sunshine.