2018 Wine

2018 Wine

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The 2018 vintage unfolded in two acts: a wet, mildew-prone spring, followed by a burning, dry summer that extended through to harvest. From this contrast emerged ripe, fleshy and deep wines, with enveloping tannins and a solar richness wherever growers managed to preserve freshness. The northern Rhône Valley delivers one of its great years: Guigal La Landonne 2018 and Christophe Pichon 2018 showcase a dense, smoky syrah of remarkable length. In Burgundy, Arnoux Lachaux Les Chaumes 2018 captures all the sap of Vosne-Romanée in a red that is both powerful and refined. From Champagne to the Loire, the same ripeness runs through whites and sweet wines of rare density, with Domaine Huet 2018 as a benchmark. To place this year among the great recent vintages, refer to the SoDivin Vintage Guide.

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Vintage Guide - SoDivin

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The F.A.Q

Is the 2018 vintage considered a great year for wine?

Yes, the 2018 vintage is widely recognised as a great year in many French regions. It stands out for exceptional grape maturity, beautiful concentration and accomplished balance. Wines from 2018 offer both a generous expression of fruit and solid structure, making it an appreciated vintage for both current drinking and cellaring.

Which French regions were most successful with the 2018 vintage?

The 2018 vintage proved particularly homogeneous on a national scale. Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône Valley and Champagne are amongst the most remarkable regions, but the Loire Valley and Alsace also produced 2018 wines of great quality, expressing their respective terroirs with precision.

Is the 2018 vintage sought after in the vintage and collectible wine market?

Yes, the 2018 vintage is already beginning to generate interest in the vintage and collectible wine market. Its solid reputation, combined with the consistent quality of the great appellations, makes it a vintage closely followed by enthusiasts and collectors seeking wines with strong ageing potential.

Vintage 2018: two seasons, one shared solar signature

The 2018 vintage will be remembered as one of dramatic climatic contrasts. A very wet winter and spring saturated the soils and cast a serious threat of downy mildew, before an exceptionally hot and dry summer set in durably through to the harvest. This spring water reserve allowed the vines to withstand the summer drought, particularly on clay-limestone terroirs. The result is a year of full ripeness, generous and alcoholic, whose success hinged on two fronts: managing downy mildew in spring, then preserving freshness through the heatwave. Where both challenges were met, 2018 produced ample, deep wines across almost every region of France.

Bordeaux 2018 — Classic power born from a battle against downy mildew

In Bordeaux, the first part of the year demanded constant vigilance: persistent humidity fuelled one of the strongest mildew pressures of the decade, costing several estates part of their harvest, including Château Pontet-Canet. The climate then changed radically, with July recording the highest temperatures since 1954 and dry, sunny conditions through to the end of October. The whites were harvested from late August to mid-September, the reds from 7 September to mid-October. The result is powerful, opulent wines with ripe tannins and a dense structure, in a style built for ageing that reconnects with the great classic Bordeaux.

On the Left Bank, the Cabernet Sauvignons achieved complete phenolic ripeness: in Saint-Estèphe, Château Montrose displays remarkable density and tannic structure, while in Saint-Julien, Château Léoville Las Cases produces a wine of impressive concentration and length, emblematic of the year's style. The first growths of Pauillac and the great terroirs of Pessac-Léognan confirm this refined power, while Margaux seduces with more restrained degrees and an elegant finish. On the Right Bank, Merlot yielded fleshy, sensual wines: in Pomerol, Château Lafleur was hailed as one of the absolute peaks of the vintage, and in Saint-Émilion, Château Pavie illustrates the year's velvety generosity on the limestone plateau. Among the sweet wines, Sauternes and Barsac benefited from a fine autumn. The selection of 2018 classed growths offered by SoDivin can be found among the great wines of Bordeaux, reserved for lovers of long ageing.

Rhône Valley 2018 — The North spared, the South put to the test by downy mildew

The Rhône Valley illustrates better than any other region the dual face of 2018. In the north, the vineyards largely escaped the downy mildew that was ravaging elsewhere; after the wet spring, the heat and drought ripened an abundant and highly concentrated Syrah. Acidity is low and alcohol levels high, but growers who found the right balance produced Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage and Cornas of remarkable depth. The south experienced the opposite scenario: one of the most severe episodes of downy mildew in generations caused many estates to lose half their harvest, so that success, very real among unaffected growers, is more uneven there.

In Côte-Rôtie, Paul Jaboulet Aîné produces a dense and velvety Hermitage La Chapelle, driven by deep dark fruit, while Stéphane Ogier and his cuvée La Belle Hélène, sourced from the oldest vines on the Côte-Rozier, combines power with mineral tension. Domaine Jamet confirms the smoky and peppery finesse of its Côte-Rôtie, and Guigal brings La Landonne to a level that Decanter ranks among the peaks of the year. The contrast with a more generous and immediate southern Rhône is all the more striking.

Burgundy 2018 — Solar generosity and preserved freshness

Burgundy experienced a year that was both qualitatively outstanding and abundant — a rare combination. After a very wet winter and spring — more than 120 mm of rain in both January and March — summer settled in with temperatures one to two degrees above normal and dry conditions, disturbed only by two hailstorms south of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The key challenge was to harvest early, from the end of August for the whites, in order to preserve acidity in the face of galloping ripeness. The whites are generally more consistent than the reds, and the Côte de Beaune, along with the cool terroirs of the Hautes-Côtes, Saint-Aubin and Pernand-Vergelesses, made particularly good use of the year.

In Chablis, Vincent Dauvissat and his grand cru Les Clos set against the vintage's heat a saline flinty quality and a chiselled concentration. In the Côte de Nuits, Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg delivers pure and silky reds with a caressing texture and precise tannin grain. The great reds of 2018 seduce with their immediate fruit without conceding anything of their ability to age, as evidenced by the Cros Parantoux from Emmanuel Rouget mentioned above.

Champagne 2018 — The opening of a great series

Champagne places 2018 among the vintages built for ageing. Spring rains and a few hailstorms in the Côte des Bar called for close monitoring of the vineyards, then the hot, dry summer led to an early harvest from 20 August onwards, with high yields authorised by the trade body. Pinot noir achieved remarkable phenolic ripeness and chardonnay, despite acidity put to the test by the heat, proved brilliant. The result is dense yet fresh wines destined for a long evolution, opening a sequence of great Champagne vintages.

On the chalky soils of Mesnil-sur-Oger, André Robert and his Terres du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs capture the saline precision and depth that grand cru Chardonnay offers in this ripe year: a grower's Champagne reserved for the terroirs and vintages that deserve it, both vinous and taut. Among the references of this vintage in Champagne, one also finds Pascal Agrapart and his Grand Cru Minéral 2018.

Loire and Alsace 2018 — The triumph of sweet Chenin and late-harvest wines

The great summer of 2018 was a gift to sweet wine vineyards. In the Loire, the heat and sunshine brought Chenin Blanc to a rare level of ripeness, with botrytis and passerillage conducive to concentrated and luminous medium-sweet wines, while the dry whites and reds of the appellation benefited from the same generosity. In Alsace, the sunshine yielded ample, ripe wines and made possible some superb late harvests.

In Vouvray, Domaine Huet and its Le Mont Moelleux Première Trie marry honey and quince paste with a vibrant acidity that keeps the wine airy. In Alsace, Domaine Marcel Deiss, true to its co-plantings, produces whites of great density, and the late-harvest wines of Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss confirm the year's success with sweet cuvées. These bottles extend, even into the northernmost terroirs, the sunny signature of 2018.

The 2018 vintage, an already unmissable modern reference

The 2018 vintage speaks to those who love generous, sunny years without sacrificing depth. It is a vintage of substance and patience, whose finest bottles will continue to improve for many years to come, while the whites, Champagnes and sweet wines already offer immediate pleasure. To compare 2018 with other great years and identify bottles at their peak, keep the SoDivin Vintage Guide close to hand.

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