2018 Vintage — A Great Sun-Filled, Generous and Remarkably Successful Year

Buying a 2018 wine means choosing a sun-filled, ripe and often highly successful vintage across several major wine regions. The finest wines combine fruit richness, concentration, structure and balance, with a generous style that is often more harmonious than expected.

The strongest buying priorities are found in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Napa Valley and Champagne. The Rhône Valley also produced very fine bottles, while Piedmont offers charming and accessible wines, best considered more for their appeal than for the classical depth of the greatest long-lived vintages.

What is the style of 2018 wines?

2018 is a vintage of ripeness, breadth and generosity. In the most successful regions, the wines show ripe fruit, dense texture and often enveloping tannins, while retaining enough balance to evolve with interest. It is a particularly appealing year for lovers of rich, expressive wines that are already highly pleasurable, without excluding genuine ageing potential in the greatest cuvées.

Bordeaux 2018: richness, depth and great potential

In Bordeaux, 2018 is a great modern vintage, marked by a warm season after a demanding start to the year. The best wines combine depth, fruit richness, ripe tannins and well-preserved freshness. Successes are numerous on both banks, with very fine results in Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux, Saint-Estèphe, Pessac-Léognan, Pomerol and Saint-Émilion.

Burgundy 2018: richness, structure and a very fine success

In Burgundy, 2018 ranks among the major successes of the decade. The reds offer fine fruit concentration, generous texture and solid structure, while the whites combine breadth, balance and ageing potential. The style is more sun-filled than in the coolest years, but the finest estates preserved finesse, precision and terroir expression.

Rhône Valley 2018: richness, power and very fine successes

In the Rhône Valley, 2018 is a very fine vintage, with generous, concentrated wines of often high quality. The northern Rhône produced powerful Syrahs, especially interesting in the finest terroirs, while the southern Rhône gave rich, spicy and deep reds.

Successes are numerous in Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, Cornas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, with a clearly marked hierarchy according to terroir and producer.

Napa Valley 2018: harmony, depth and a major success

In Napa Valley, 2018 is a very fine year for Cabernet Sauvignon. The best wines stand out for their balance, purity of fruit, refined tannins and a style often more harmonious and more classical than in some warmer vintages. It is one of the major international strengths of the year.

Champagne 2018: a great vintage now highly sought after

In Champagne, 2018 now appears as one of the great recent vintages. The harvest combined ripeness, abundance and very fine sanitary quality, producing generous, fruit-driven and often remarkably balanced wines. The best Champagnes combine breadth, freshness and genuine ageing potential.

Piedmont 2018: charm, accessibility and selection

In Piedmont, 2018 is a more delicate and less structured vintage than the great classical years. The best Barolo and Barbaresco are perfumed, supple, seductive and often more accessible in youth, with a style based more on elegance and pleasure than on monumentality.

Buying a 2018 wine

Buying a 2018 wine is an excellent option for building a cellar, choosing a fine bottle or discovering a particularly successful sun-filled vintage. The most compelling choices concern great Bordeaux, the finest Burgundies, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, great Champagnes and the finest cuvées of the Rhône Valley.

The vintage will particularly appeal to lovers of rich, expressive and structured wines. In Piedmont, favour immediate charm and producer selection over the search for very long-term cellaring.