Across the board, 2021 Saint Estephe wines are easy-going, charming, medium-bodied, fresh, and savory at their best. Most of the wines can be enjoyed with just a modicum of aging. 2021 is not a vintage you need to lay down for years, many of these wines are going to delicious on release, or with just a few years in the cellar.
2021 Pessac Leognan was not an easy vintage, due to the challenges of the growing season, including attacks of frost, and mildew, and yet, there are several for good wines. The reds are soft, charming, and fresh, with lower alcohol levels than recent years, and the white wines are spectacular, including one wine scoring 100 Pts!
St. Emilion is the largest, and most diverse appellation in the Right Bank. So, with 2021, you have a dizzying array of wine styles, and levels of quality. But, if you look, there are several superb wines with fabulous character that overcame the vintage.
2021 Saint Emilion at its best offers an intriguing blend of charming, red fruits, soft-approachable tannins and refined, silky textures with savory, as well as mint and tobacco accents.
2021 is a complicated vintage for St. Emilion. While heterogenous, there are several very fine wines, even in this challenging year. Growers with Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon produced wines with St. Emilion character, and style that are well worth tasting.
It is often the case with white Bordeaux that when the vintage is difficult for the red wines, white wines often excel, which is exactly what happened with 2021. The best whites exude purity, freshness, lift, and vibrancy. The fruits are aromatic, sweet, ripe, and sizzling with the racy acidities that are unique to Bordeaux. And, only 2 wines earned perfect scores this year, and both are white wines!
While not homogenous, there are several quite nice 2021 Pomerol wines with style, character, and the ability to age, and evolve gracefully. In fact, 2 Pomerol wines are in competition for wine of the vintage! Most 2021 Pomerol will have wide drinking widows, as they will be for the most part, delicious early in life, yet, will evolve for up to 2 decades.