The World's Best Value Bordeaux | Wine-Searcher News & Features (2024)

"Don't make me laugh" is a pretty common reaction whenever you bring up the subject of value in relation to Bordeaux and it's an understandable one, too.

Bordeaux is, of course, one of the most famously expensive wine regions in the world, whose reputation for fine wine is matched only by its ability to charge top dollar for it. It sits alongside Burgundy and Napa as the regions where your wallet is most likely to be violently assaulted, without much hope of relief. Bordeaux does offer a glimmer of hope, however.

Take Burgundy, for example, home of the Côte d'Or, where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay reach their apotheosis – on our list of the region's best-value wines, there's nothing from the Côte d'Or; it's all Chablis, Macon and Côte Chalonnaise. Likewise Napa, a region famed for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends. There, the best "bargain" Cabernet starts at $70 a bottle as a global average price, while our value-searching algorithm suggests the best Bordeaux blend starts at an average of $290.

In Bordeaux, the reality is different. There is good Bordeaux across all price levels, but overall prices tend to be dragged up, statistically, by the big names – the classed growths and the Petruses of this world. There is quite a big trade-off in Bordeaux between quality, price, supply and demand.

There is plenty of value, though, as our list below shows. There has also been a significant change in the past year since we last looked at best value Bordeaux. A year ago, eight out of these 10 wines would have been white and sweet, which is not really the first thing that springs to mind when you think Bordeaux; in fact, the situation was the same back in 2019, too. This year, however, there are four reds on the list, and they're not all from more obscure appellations, either – there's a Margaux, and even a Pomerol.

At Wine-Searcher, the algorithm that ranks our best value wines can be confusing and not always in line with what people perceive as "value". For this series of best value stories, we work with a more direct point-to-dollar ratio for a simplified "bang for buck" scale than our standard algorithm. Simply dividing the aggregated critic score by the price gives a value factor and the higher the factor the better the value – a kind of points-per-dollar scale. The higher the value factor, the more points per dollar. All the wines have a minimum critic score of 91.

Usually, when we run our superlative lists, we don't take vintage into account, but since vintage variation affects the score so much, we concentrate on individual vintages of wines for our best-value lists.

Best Value Bordeaux on Wine-Searcher:

The main takeway from that list is twofold: Sauternes remains fertile ground for good-value wine, and 2019 reds are offering value right now.

That Pomerol in second place is worth a mention, too. It is a model of consistency – just one vintage in the past six has returned an aggregated critic score of less than 92, and the 2015 is in a particular sweet spot, with a score of 92 and a global average retail price of just $37. That's also the average price for the top wine (which also deserves an honorable mention), but it has an aggregated score of 93 points.

But really what people mean when they talk about Bordeaux is usually red wine – like when people talk about Burgundy, they don't often mean Chablis. So let's see what the top 10 Bordeaux reds would look like. The four above are followed by some big names when we round out the top 10 reds.

Best Value Bordeaux Reds on Wine-Searcher:

This is where the big names come in. Suddenly you see big Left Bank communes and classed growths enter the picture and we also see a bit more variation of vintages, although 2019's promise is still blindingly obvious.

Sure, the value factors tail away pretty quickly, but the quality level increases to compensate; the Grand-Puy-Lacoste represents a pretty attractive proposition, with an aggregated critic score of 95 and an average retail price of $70, for example. In fact, 95 is the lowest score among those six wines, with the Calon Ségur hitting 96. At the top, the Pontet-Canet boasts 97, which is interesting in itself. It has a global average retail price of $129 a bottle, while the other two recent 97-point vintages from the estate are appreciably more expensive: the 2018 has an average price of $160, while the 2016 will set you back an average of $189.

While those prices aren't chump change, they're not beyond the reach of most wine lovers, either. It just goes to show that while value is a relative term in Bordeaux, it's there if you look close enough. Happy hunting.