Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
What’s most exciting (and rare) is that 2016 was a year in which site trumped vintage. I particularly love that the 2016s so clearly communicate terroir. When you taste the wines, they do not so much shout the year as they want to tell about their origins.
Few wines demonstrate signs of hydric stress or phenolic ripening challenges, rendering 2016 the most consistently great year since 2009 and 2010, both at the top of the market and in terms of good value wines. Compared to subsequent vintages, it is on a par in terms of consistency with 2019 and 2020, yet 2016 managed to knock it out of the park with more extraordinary wines than either of these vintages.
To sum up, 2016 was an incredible vintage that produced many outstanding wines and an impressive number of extraordinary ones from throughout Bordeaux. The tannin ripeness, complexity, and balance are particularly impressive in so many 2016 wines, especially when you consider that the grapes were able to achieve all this at moderate alcohol levels. These wines are true to their places, an attribute somewhat unique to great wine and extra-worthy of collecting. In short, yes, the 2016s lived up to all my expectations and then some.
Jancis Robinson, MW
The quality of red Bordeaux in 2016 was universally lauded. An exceptionally dry summer with cool nights eventually, thanks to mid-September rain, resulted in small, thick-skinned, ripe grapes, and the wines are marked by high tannin and acidity, with superb aromatic fragrance. This is without doubt one of the finest recent Bordeaux vintages.