Tasting Bordeaux Without the First-Growths

Several producers declined to submit 2020s for blind-tasting, and we do not compromise this ethical protocol for anyone.

- JAMES MOLESWORTH

I began covering Bordeaux for Wine Spectator in the 2008 vintage. Initially my blindtastings of the bottled wines were conducted in Bordeaux every December. My report on the most recently released vintage appears annually in the March 31 issue. (For this year's analysis, see "Bordeaux Stands Firm," page 42.) However, since COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the tastings have been shifted to our New York office. This move allows us to better accommodate the releases en masse as the châteaus bottle their wines in late summer and then ship them to the U.S. market in the fall.

All Wine Spectator tastings are conducted blind. My fellow editors and I are shielded from knowing the producer or the price of any wine. The only information we have during our official tastings are vintage and appellation, or lead grape variety in the case of New World wines. We conduct our tastings this way to eliminate bias, which has been proven to impact wine evaluation time and time again. Studies show that when tasters are presented with the price or pedigree of a wine, it influences their perception of quality.