Wine's world

In the World, 3 countries alone represent nearly 3/4 of the organic (or in conversion) vines:

- 120,000 ha in Spain
- 100,000 ha in Italy
-   80,000 ha in France
...
- 120,000 ha for the rest of the world, all continents combined.

Since their appearance during the bottling process, the tastings and rankings of the 2016 Bordeaux wines have been progressing well. As expected, the reviews' notes and comments are formidable, confirming - and even exceeding - the promises announced in future.

Revue du Vin de France kicked off last September with a partial tasting of « Vintage 2016 - Let them age, they will become legendary » with three wines rated 20/20: Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild and Pontet-Canet.

On the vinous.com website, Antonio Galloni put his complete tasting of all the 2016 red and white Bordeaux wines online in January, i.e. more than 600 wines. He does not hide his enthusiasm « The bottled 2016s capture every bit of the potential I sensed when I started tasting the wines from barrel, prior to en primeur, in January 2017. I found many 2016s to be even better from bottle than they were during the spring futures campaign. The best 2016s are powerful, richly layered, vibrant and stunningly beautiful, not to mention incredibly delicious and alluring. For so many wines and estates, 2016 is an epic vintage ».

We do not have enough space to quote in full the 76 wines that have obtained a score equal to or higher than 95/100 but here are the scores of those that we are proposing now :

- 100/100 : Haut-Brion red, Pichon-Comtesse de Lalande
-   99/100 : Pontet-Canet
-   98/100 : Cheval-Blanc, Angélus, L'Église-Clinet, Smith-Haut-Lafitte red
-   97/100 : Haut-Bailly, La Mission Haut-Brion red, Clos Fourtet, Domaine de Chevalier red, La Mondotte, Léoville-Poyferré, Suduiraut
-   96/100 : Canon-La Gaffelière, Gloria, L'Évangile, Lynch-Bages, Léoville-Barton, Pape-Clément red, Pichon-Baron, Prieuré-Lichine, Troplong-Mondot
-   95/100 : Cos d'Estournel, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Petit-Gravet Aîné, Rieussec

Still on vinous.com, Neal Martin posted the following week his own tasting of the 2016 Bordeaux wines after the bet, more than 550 wines, with a commentary in unison « Let’s cut to the chase: 2016 is a fantastic, sublime and at times entrancing vintage. For once, the frothing hype that presaged en primeur was justified. The 2016 vintage already feels haloed. The promise that was so palpable in barrel remains ».

Among the 53 vintages he notes 95/100 and more, you will find in our columns:

- 100/100 : Cos d'Estournel
-   99/100 : Haut-Brion red, La Mission Haut-Brion red
-   98/100 : Cheval-Blanc, L'Église-Clinet
-   97/100 : Canon, Haut-Bailly, Lynch-Bages, Pichon-Comtesse de Lalande, Smith-Haut-Lafitte red
-   96/100 : Angélus, Clos Fourtet, Léoville-Poyferré, Pape-Clément red, Pichon-Baron, Pontet-Canet
-   95/100 : Domaine de Chevalier red, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Léoville-Barton, Malartic-Lagravière red

The worldwide craze for great wines continued in 2018.

Thus, the global platform for the exchange of fine wines Liv-ex (London International Vintners exchange) has just delivered, like a stock exchange, the 2018 balance sheet of its various indices:

• 35% increase for the Burgundy 150 index
• 21% increase for the California 50 index
•   8% increase for the Bordeaux Legends 50 index
•   8% increase for the Champagne 50 index
•   7% increase for the Rhône 100 index
•   4% increase for the Italy 100 index
•   3% increase for the Porto 50 index

While the Dow Jones 30 and CAC 40 stock market indices lost -6% and -11% respectively in 2018.