2018 Chateau Haut Queyran Cru Bourgeois Medoc Bordeaux 750 ml

2018 in Bordeaux is the Napa Cab lover’s vintage par excellence. The hottest, driest summer in half a century yielded the sort of rich, pliant, extravagantly sumptuous wines you’d associate with Oakville, not somber Saint-Estèphe. In other words, thanks to a steady uptick in temperatures, this is not the Bordeaux of yesteryear.

Owned since 1964 by the Demarchi family, Haut Queyran is one of the Cru Bourgeois overachievers making seductive, succulent reds at a fraction of the cost of a classified growth. 

This chateau is not far from the hamlet of Brion, and the ruins of an ancient Gallo-Roman city nearby. It’s about 13 minutes northwest of Saint-Estèphe, and sits on prime limestone-clay soils. 

Thanks to hot and dry conditions that persisted throughout harvest in 2018, warm winds kept the grapes free of disease. The clay in their soils helped them avoid hydric stress, and allowed the Demarchis to pick at their leisure, waiting for the perfect moment of ripeness. Vinous called the year “positively stunning” for the Left Bank.

A mellifluous blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged in oak barrels, this is the rare Bordeaux that requires neither patience nor big bucks, yet offers massive rewards in the glass. You’ll be glad to have this in your arsenal.