OK, so I went to Bordeaux to the en-primeur tastings to educate myself. Do I feel educated? Well, I've learnt a little bit and reinforced some of my preconceptions... (not sure if that's a good thing!)
2003 was the hottest year anyone can remember - in fact peak temperatures in Bordeaux were even hotter last summer than they were here - so ripening shouldn't have been a problem, and I expected to taste some nice rich wines. We went to six of the best known Chateaux (Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Laffitte, Mouton-Roschild, Latour, Margaux), as well as to a tasting with many more on offer...
Conclusions? Well, there were some wonderful wines and some pretty dodgy ones. I must preface the next comment with the fact that the night before I got together with an old friend who lives nearby and we enjoyed a bottle of Joan d'Anguera El Bugader 2001 (D.O. Montsant) - a wonderful, rich, black, Syrah based wine overflowing with aromas of chocolate, spices, wonderful firm rounded tannins etc, etc, etc. We'd tasted this together at the cellar when it was still in barrel, and the memory of that tasting held up to the evidence in the bottle. If "big" is your thing, then this is the benchmark.
Of course what we're tasting now are unfinished wines - they've been in a barrel a maximum of 4-5 months. Nonetheless, the main idea I came away with was that when Bordeaux tried to do "Elegant", they make some wonderful wines (Cheval Blanc - St Emilion, Laffite - Medoc). When they tried to do "Big", they just got it wrong. Jammy fruit on one side, and savagely dry (even green) tannins on the other. No amount of bottle time is going to solve that... (My favourite culprit of the latter was Mouton-Rothschild).
Maybe the possibilities offered by a hot year made winemakers get carried away with the idea of making a huge wine - often with scorched fruit and macerating the hell out of the grapes? I'm not experienced enough to judge, but I couldn't help thinking that if you want big - then head South. Elegant? Bordeaux can be the best in the world.
2003 was the hottest year anyone can remember - in fact peak temperatures in Bordeaux were even hotter last summer than they were here - so ripening shouldn't have been a problem, and I expected to taste some nice rich wines. We went to six of the best known Chateaux (Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Laffitte, Mouton-Roschild, Latour, Margaux), as well as to a tasting with many more on offer...
Conclusions? Well, there were some wonderful wines and some pretty dodgy ones. I must preface the next comment with the fact that the night before I got together with an old friend who lives nearby and we enjoyed a bottle of Joan d'Anguera El Bugader 2001 (D.O. Montsant) - a wonderful, rich, black, Syrah based wine overflowing with aromas of chocolate, spices, wonderful firm rounded tannins etc, etc, etc. We'd tasted this together at the cellar when it was still in barrel, and the memory of that tasting held up to the evidence in the bottle. If "big" is your thing, then this is the benchmark.
Of course what we're tasting now are unfinished wines - they've been in a barrel a maximum of 4-5 months. Nonetheless, the main idea I came away with was that when Bordeaux tried to do "Elegant", they make some wonderful wines (Cheval Blanc - St Emilion, Laffite - Medoc). When they tried to do "Big", they just got it wrong. Jammy fruit on one side, and savagely dry (even green) tannins on the other. No amount of bottle time is going to solve that... (My favourite culprit of the latter was Mouton-Rothschild).
Maybe the possibilities offered by a hot year made winemakers get carried away with the idea of making a huge wine - often with scorched fruit and macerating the hell out of the grapes? I'm not experienced enough to judge, but I couldn't help thinking that if you want big - then head South. Elegant? Bordeaux can be the best in the world.
