The Union Grands Cru Bordeaux is an organization representing 131 Grand Cru Chateaux of Bordeaux. They promote the wines of the top estates with a yearly world tour showcasing the current vintage.

In the United States the tour has taken them to Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and on January 22 to New York City. The wines they poured are the current release which is the 2021 vintage.

The event was held as it has been for several years now at Cipriani at 110 West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. Cipriani is an event space housed in a former back that was built when banks were built to impress with vaulted ceilings and lots of marble.

The wines at the tasting were still very young at this point, which I understand but it is a good way to get an overview of that particular vintage and on how the vintage is coming along and on how the wines may age in the long term.

Bordeaux has been lucky with a string of very good vintages in the past few years. In good vintages there is so much good juice grown in that region that there is plenty of good wine coming out from even the third, fourth tier and cru bourgeois estates.

Unfortunately, that streak came to an end with the 2021 vintage. It was a challenging and uneven year. For the most part I was getting a lot of tart, red cherry juice notes on many of the wines with nothing anywhere ready to drink at this point. 

Fortunately, when things are not so good in the vineyards for the regular wines means that the conditions were good in Sauterne and Barsac for the Botrytis mold to grow. There were about half the producers pouring these dessert wines at this event that they’ve had in the past but what I tried was well balanced.

Some of what I sampled:

Pessac-Leognan

Chateau Corbonnieux	Domaine de Chevalier
Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte

Saint Emillion

Chateau Canon	Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere
Chateau La Gaffeliere	Clos Fourtet
Chateau Pavie Macquin

Pomerol

Chateau Beauregard	Chateau Le Bon Pasteur
Chateau Clinet	Chateau Le Gay
Chateau Petit Village

Margaux

Chateau Brane Cantenac	Chateau Dauzac
Chateau Cantenac Brown	Chateau Kirwan
Chateau Prieure Lichine	Chateau Rauzan Gassies
Chateau Siran

Saint Julien

Chateau Beychevelle	Chateau Branaire Ducru
Chateau Gloria	Chateau Gruaud Larose
Chateau Lagrange	Chateau Leoville Barton
Chateau Leoville Poyferre	Chateau Gloria

Pauillac

Chateau Batailley	Chateau Clerc Milon
Chateau d’Armailhac	Chateau Duhart Milon
Chateau Grand Puy Ducasse	Chateau Haut Batailley
Chateau Lynch Bages	Chateau Lynch Moussas

Saint Estephe

Chateau Cos Lobory	Chateau Lafon Rochet
Chateau de Pez	Chateau Phelan SEgur

Haut Medoc

Chateau Coufran

Sauternes/Barsac

Chateau Doisy Daene	Chateau Guiraud
Chateau de Rayne Vigneau	Chateau La Tour Blanche