Bordeaux 2010 classic, but with more of everything.

With journalists in Bordeaux tasting the current releases, the general view is that the wines are high in alcohol with 14-14.5% not uncommon, but have lots of balancing acidity, making for enjoyable wines when young and middle aged. But there is a risk that the alcohols will mean the wines do not age for very long periods.

Summer in Bordeaux was very sunny but not hot, meaning that the acids in the grapes were retained. This has created big wines with ripe tannins and a backbone of acidity. Merlot is the only grape that appears to have suffered, with right bank wines which are dominated by Merlot having very high alcohols to reach full flavour ripeness.

Graves was singled out by Steven Spurrier as the region to watch and while Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth in Graves, has been highly praised, other wines have also been singled out for recognition. James Lawther MW describes the vintage as classic but with a bit more of everything, referring to colour, acidity, tannins and alcohol.