Bordeaux tasting of wines from 70 châteaux, Villa Solliden, Stockholm (24-05-2025 Nenad Jelisic)
Due to various reasons, I have not had the opportunity to work as I usually do with NJ Wines’ Facebook page and NJ Wines’ Internet page for 6 months and that is why this article is so late. But as they say here in Sweden, better late than never. Here finally comes the article, just in time for the next Bordeaux tasting in September.
It does not happen very often that one gets to taste wines from 70 Bordeaux wine estates (chateaux) during one and the same tasting. Especially not in Scandinavia. Winefinder has again organized this traditional (annual) tasting of primary wines (En Primeur-wines) and older wines from Bordeaux. In this case, primary wines refer to wines from the 2024 vintage in Bordeaux. The wines from vintage 2024 were barrel samples. They will remain in barrel and bottle, before being released on the market, for about 12 more months. In addition to the primary wine, most of the wine estates (chateaux) also had an older wine as a reference. The tasting was held on the 4th of September 2024, at Solliden at Skansen in Stockholm.
The 10 best wines of the Bordeaux tasting:
1. Château Duhart-Milon, 2018, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points)

2. Château Canon la Gaffeliere, 2015, red dry blend wine, Saint Émilion, Libournais, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points)

3. Château Lafite-Rothschild, 2023, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points)

4. Château Pichon Longueville Baron, 2019, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points)

5. Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte, 2018, red dry blend wine, Pessac-Léognan, Graves, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points)

6. Domaine de Chevalier, 2016, red dry blend wine, Pessac-Léognan, Graves, Bordeaux, France, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points)

7. Château Léoville-Poyferré, 2020, red dry blend wine, Saint Julien, Haut Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points)

8. Clos de l'Oratoire, 2016, red dry blend wine, Saint Émilion, Libournais, Bordeaux, France, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points)

9. Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte, 2022, red dry blend wine, Pessac-Léognan, Graves, Bordeaux, France, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points)

10. Château Lafite-Rothschild, 2014, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 3,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (85 points of 100 points)

The best wine of the Bordeaux tasting:
Château Duhart-Milon, 2018 (approx. 117 EUR/123 USD; selling price on the internet excluding delivery costs) red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points)
Wow - what a delicious wine! Château Duhart-Milon 2018 is a nuanced, austere, complex, sweet spicy, fruity and flavourful wine, which has a fabulous balance between tartaric acidity, sweetness, fruitiness and tannins. The complex aroma is characterized by vanilla, sweet tobacco, prunes, ripe dark cherries, cocoa, pencil shavings and black currant. The complex and concentrated flavour is characterized by vanilla, prunes, ripe dark cherries, blackberries, dark chocolate, black pepper and crème de cassis. The wine has silky tannins and a very long aftertaste of sweet spices and ripe dark cherries that linger forever in the mouth. Château Duhart-Milon 2018 can be drunk with great pleasure already now, but it will develop for many more years, at least 15 years i.e. until at least the year 2039.
The absolutely wonderful and fabulous Château Duhart-Milon 2018 will go really well with grilled beef fillet/entrecôte with café de Paris sauce and potato gratin or with grilled duck breast with port- and cherry sauce and potato stoemp (roughly mashed potatoes with vegetables and cream) or with pasta carbonara (with fresh tagliatelle) or with slow-roasted porchetta with grilled vegetables and buttery garlic bread or with reindeer stew with buttery mashed potatoes or with grilled pork chops with grilled red peppers, yellow onions and tomatoes and Béarnaise sauce or with Boeuf Bourguignon with buttery mashed potatoes or with hard cheeses such as Cheddar, Svecia, Västerbotten, Parmesan and Grana Padano. The wine should be served at 18 to 19°C in Bordeaux glasses, if possible, from Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Spiegelau or Riedel. Another option is to serve it at 16°C (when room temperature or outdoor temperature is above 23°C) and then enjoy it as it starts to grow in the glass.
Château Duhart-Milon 2018 consists of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot. The grapes for the wine come from Château Duhart-Milon's 76 ha vineyards, which are located on the western side of the Château Lafite Rothschild (which owns Château Duhart-Milon). The soil in them consists of clayey sandy gravel underlain by limestone. The grapes are picked and sorted by hand. After very careful selections in both the vineyards and the winery, the grapes are destemmed and gently pressed. The grape mass, which consists of crushed grapes and grape juice, is pumped into stainless steel vats where the fermentation begins. The specific of the fermentation at Château Duhart-Milon is that it takes place over a period of 8 to 10 days, that each specific part of the vineyards is fermented separately and that the fermentation temperature in stainless steel vats is carefully controlled. To intensify the leaching, the fermenting wine is pumped several times a day from the bottom of the vat over the grape skin mass that lies on the top of the vat. After fermentation, the finished fermented wine undergoes malolactic fermentation. When the malolactic fermentation, which usually takes a month, is complete, it is time to rack the wine to 100% new French 225 litre oak barrels (barrique). During the aging, which takes 24 months, the wine is racked a few more times per year and clarified once using 4 to 6 egg whites. Then the wines from the various oak barrels are blended and the wine is bottled. Finally, the wine is aged for a few more months before it is released on the market.
Château Duhart-Milon wines and all the wines listed above are imported to Sweden by Winefinder.

The following wine estates (chateaux) participated in the tasting:
Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux
Château d’Aiguilhe
Haut-Médoc
Château Cantemerle (Cinquième Cru)
Château de Camensac (Cinquième Cru)
Château La Tour Carnet (Quatrième Cru)
Château Potensac
Margaux
Château Brane-Cantenac (Deuxième Cru)
Château Cantenac Brown (Troisième Cru)
Château d’Issan (Troisième Cru)
Château Durfort-Vivens (Deuxième Cru)
Château du Tertre (Cinquième Cru)
Château Ferriere (Troisième Cru)
Château Giscours (Troisième Cru)
Château Kirwan (Troisième Cru)
Château Lascombes (Deuxième Cru)
Château Malescot St Exupery (Troisième Cru)
Moulis-en-Médoc
Château Chasse-Spleen
Château Mauvesin Barton
Chateau Poujeaux
Pauillac
Château d'Armailhac (Cinquième Cru)
Château Clerc Milon (Cinquième Cru)
Château Duhart Milon (Quatrième Cru)
Château Haut-Bages Libéral (Cinquième Cru)
Château Haut Batailley (Cinquième Cru)
Château Lafite Rotschild (Premier Cru)
Château Lynch Bages (Cinquième Cru)
Château Pédesclaux (Cinquième Cru)
Château Pichon Baron (Deuxième Cru)
Château Pichon Comtesse (Deuxième Cru)
Château Pontet Canet (Cinquième Cru)
Pessac-Léognan
Château Carbonnieux (Cru Classé)
Château Haut-Bailly (Cru Classé)
Château Larrivet Haut-Brion
Château Latour-Martillac (Cru Classé)
Château Pape Clement (Cru Cassé)
Château Smith Haut Lafitte (Cru Classé)
Domaine de Chevalier (Cru Cassé)
Pomerol
Château Beauregard
Château Clinet
Château Gazin
Château La Clémence
Château La Conseillante
Château Nenin
Sauternes
Château Rieussec (Premier Cru)
Château Suduiraut (Premier Cru)
St-Emilion
Château Beauséjour Bécot (Premier Grand Cru Classé B)
Château Canon la Gaffelière (Premier Grand Cru Classé B)
Château Destieux (Grand Cru Classé)
Château Fombrauge (Grand Cru Classé)
Château Grand Corbin (Grand Cru Classé)
Château La Gaffeliere (Premier Grand Cru Classé B)
Château Montlisse (Grand Cru Classé)
Clos de l’Oratoire (Grand Cru Classé)
Clos Fourtet (Premier Grand Cru Classé B)
St-Estéphe
Château Calon Segur (Troisième Cru)
Château Cos d’Estournel (Deuxième Cru)
Château Cos Labory
Château de Pez
Château Lafon-Rochet (Quatrième Cru)
Château Les Ormes de Pez
Château Phelan Segur
St-Julien
Château Beychevelle (Quatrième Cru)
Château Branaire-Ducru (Quatrième Cru)
Châteaux Clos du Marquis
Château Gloria
Château Gruaud Larose (Deuxième Cru)
Château Lagrange (Troisième Cru)
Château Langoa Barton (Troisième Cru)
Château Léoville Barton (Deuxième Cru)
Château Léoville Las Cases (Deuxième Cru)
Château Léoville Poyferré (Deuxième Cru)
Château Saint Pierre (Quatrième Cru)
Château Talbot (Quatrième Cru)


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