a guide to affordable bordeaux

At the end of last year, a reader asked me to share my thoughts on how to build a cellar.

Nicholas Bull wrote: “You’ve mentioned a number of times that certain fine wines are quickly getting out of reach for even relatively well-paid people. I certainly can’t justify the wines I used to buy.

“I wonder whether you could devote one article to offering some thoughts on how to build a high-quality cellar, with comparable quality wines to those that many love from the classic wine regions, but without breaking the bank?” He cited cru bourgeois, lesser-known Rhône wines, German, South African and eastern Europe wines. There are so many wines to choose from that in this article I’m focusing solely on Bordeaux. I shall continue with at least two more articles over the next few months making suggestions for cellar candidates from elsewhere.

First, a note on storage. If your idea is a nice little collection at home, you will have to buy your wine “duty paid”, including the duty payable wherever you live (currently £2.67 a bottle on most wines in the UK plus VAT at 20 per cent). This gives you the flexibility of buying only a few bottles of each wine but you need to be very sure that your “cellar” is dark, sufficiently cool (around 13C) and not too dry. Otherwise the corks will dry out and start to let in air, which may be useful in a glass or decanter to soften young wine but is disastrous for bottles of mature wine.

Red bordeaux is a prime cellar candidate. These can increasingly be drunk young but, like vintage port, they need time to show their best

Most collectors today, however, buy by the case “in bond” at prices that exclude these tedious taxes so they can store their wine in a bonded warehouse with ideal storage conditions. (Such storage is virtually mandatory if you intend to sell any of your collection – unless you can prove that you have a temperature- and humidity-controlled cellar.) The relative merits of various outfits offering this service is probably a suitable subject for another article.

Unfortunately, in the UK (not so in the US), many fine wines are available only by the standard case, which has widely been reduced from 12 75cl bottles to six. And you’ll have to factor in the cost of storage, generally between £10 and £20 a year per case. The other disadvantage of professional storage is that, unlike a domestic wine collection, you can’t decide what to open on impulse. If you’re storing wine under bond, you’ll need to pay duty at current rates before you can get your hands on the bottles. You’ll then have to pay for delivery, and wait for them to arrive.

Red bordeaux is a prime cellar candidate. These can increasingly be drunk young but, like vintage port, they need time to show their best. Now is a great time to buy bordeaux in the lower and middle reaches because the market is extremely soft. Bordeaux is made in vast quantities and demand for it has decreased to such an extent that vine growers in less propitious sites are being bribed to pull out their vines.

From smarter addresses, I’d be careful to choose top-quality vintages with a notable level of tannin that will keep them in good shape for many years. The 2019s and 2016s are obvious candidates that are still available in some quantity, 2019 being the vintage offered en primeur during lockdowns so – most unusually – at decent prices on release. The prices of the 2019s have generally caught up with the robust prices of the 2020s, a vintage I will be tasting blind in depth very soon. I will report back.

Excellent value can be found from Bordeaux’s so-called “super seconds”, the estates whose wines hover somewhere between the level of what were classified as first and second growths in 1855. I specifically recommend what are known loosely as their “second wines” (as opposed to the flagship bottling known as the grand vin), not least because these particular châteaux are extremely selective about what goes into their grand vin.

Obvious examples include those of Léoville Las Cases (Clos du Marquis and Le Petit Lion), Palmer (Alter Ego), Pichon Baron (Les Tourelles and, longer-lasting, Les Griffons), Pichon Lalande (Réserve de la Comtesse) and Rauzan Ségla (Ségla). They can also provide satisfying drinking earlier than the grands vins, so long as you don’t drink them alongside the relevant grand vin at the latter’s peak maturity.

There are also châteaux lower down Bordeaux’s famous ranking system that regularly overperform in the blind tastings of a four-year-old vintage that I participate in every January. Meyney of St-Estèphe springs to mind, and Siran in Margaux can last much longer than most Bordeaux drinkers realise. Duhart Milon, the little brother of first growth Lafite, is very much cheaper yet offers the oak quality and attention to detail of a first growth.

As for the crus bourgeois, a rank below the crus classés, or classed growths, the best of them can also be great value although they are for drinking not trading, and won’t generally last as long as the wines cited above, nor usually reach quite the heights. Names such as Beaumont, Belle-Vue, Le Boscq, Cambon La Pelouse, Charmail, Clement Pichon, Deyrem Valentin, Lilian Ladouys, Malescasse, Moulin Rouge, Noaillac, Patache d’Aux, Paveil de Luze, Petit Bocq, Peyrabon, Preuillac, Ramage la Batisse and Vieux Moulin are more reliable than most. It’s worth choosing a vintage such as 2019 with no shortage of ripe fruit and tannin. The average quality of the crus bourgeois has increased enormously now that summers are warmer.

All of these are Cabernet Sauvignon-influenced wines on the left bank of the Gironde estuary. Wines from the right bank, generally made from Merlot and a bit of Cabernet Franc, tend to be more expensive but the Fronsac appellation can provide real freshness and value while more and more fine wines are being made in the Castillon appellation, effectively an extension of the more expensive St-Émilion one. The late Denis Durantou of L’Église-Clinet in Pomerol developed Les Cruzelles and La Chenade in the satellite appellation Lalande de Pomerol. They can offer the lusciousness of Pomerol without the high prices.

If you want wine to drink soonish, the Bordeaux market is crazy in that mature wine can be much better value than the latest “vintage of the century”. And you won’t have to pay those storage charges for years. Good-candidate vintages are 2014 (a vintage I’ll be assessing blind soon), 2012, 2005 and 1995, and the best 2002s can be well priced.

Good sweet white bordeaux can last even longer than red bordeaux – decades, in many cases. It’s currently unfashionable so, in view of the care and expense needed to make it, it’s seriously underpriced. Taking a long-term view, I’d be tempted to invest heavily in it now – so long as, like me, you also enjoy drinking it.

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. International stockists on Wine-searcher.com

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