Bordeaux makes some incredibly expensive wines, but also some of the cheapest in France. As a general rule, however, cheap Bordeaux is rarely worth drinking: only producers who can get a reasonable price for their wines can afford low yields, vigilant winemaking and good barrels – all prerequisites for quality. That said, there is no need to pay the earth for decent Bordeaux. Fine if you want to invest in wine – Bordeaux is a speculator’s market in which collectors target bluechip brands – but if you actually want to drink wine (and why else buy it?), those are the very wines to avoid.
With the Bordeaux climate becoming warmer with each passing year, vintage variation is less pronounced than it used to be.
There are few bargains to be had in the most acclaimed regions: you will almost always pay a premium for wines from prestigious areas such as Margaux, St-Julien, Pauillac and Pomerol. In the less well known areas, such as Pessac-Leognan and St-Estephe, producers are anxious to make their mark, and many chateaux overdeliver on quality.
Better to buy the grand vin from an aspiring property than a second wine from a celebrated one. After all, Bordeaux makes vast quantities of wine. A property with any pretensions to quality and the higher prices that come with it must produce wine on a standard way above average. There are many such wines to be found the Granves, Lalance-de-Pemerol or Cotes de Castillion, but many of them sell directly to French consumers at wine fairs where thousands of French enthusiasts stock up their cellars. As a consequence, many excellent Bordeaux chateaux feel no need to export their wines.
Nevertheless, UK wine merchants do stock a wide range of will-priced Bordeaux. But precisely because Bordeaux prides itself on being a speculative market, importers and retailers often find themselves overstocked with good but hard-to-sell wine. Consequently, bargains appear even on lists of the most prestigious mechants. It’s worth keeping an eye on merchants’ websites (which often present sudden discounts) and bin-end offers.