The Tasting Panel magazine

May 2010

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Steven Spurrier’s Letter from London Bordeaux 2009 “The best in my lifetime” were the words used by France’s foremost wine critic, Michel Béttane, to describe the 2009 vintage for Bordeaux red wines. Jacques Thienpont, owner of Pomerol’s Château Le Pin, said that it was quite rare to be able to say that weather conditions were perfect throughout the growing season, but that it was true of 2009. Charles Chevallier, who oversees L’Evangile in Pomerol and Rieussec in Sauternes as well as Lafite-Rothschild and Duhart-Milon in Pauillac, limted himself to just two words: “Joyful harvests.” Having spent ten days in Bordeaux at the end of March tasting over 500 wines, I can ascertain that Bordeaux certainly seems to have reached new heights in 2009. PHOTO: DECANTER Bordeaux vintages are all too often viewed as whether they are better on the Left Bank (Médoc and Graves) than on the Right (Pomerol and Saint-Emilion), whether it was a Cabernet or a Merlot vintage. 1996 was the former and 1998 most definitely the latter, yet 2009 was perfect for both, “a dream harvest in late September and October that took place during unusually dry conditions,” accord- ing to Bordeaux’s Faculty of Oenology. The concentration in the 2009s is a positive result of global warming, the higher alcohols being balanced by an overall freshness from natural acidity and the aging potential being guaranteed by the highest levels of tannins ever recorded in Bordeaux. Comparisons were inevitable with 2005, with general agreement that, while this had more structure, 2009 had more fruit. The high alcohols that were a concern at the start turned out to be necessary to balance all the other components, and my notes were full of “fragrance, purity, depth, harmony.” As Bill Blatch of Vintex, with four decades of experience in Bordeaux, said, “The 2009s appear to have a ‘togeth- erness’ that will make them approachable in their youth but also, like the 1959s and 1929s, unexpectedly long-lived.” And while the hot summer made dry whites a little 22 / the tasting panel / may 2010 richer, less elegant than 2008 and 2007, Sauternes and Barsac benefitted from an early harvest, with conditions perfect for botrytis to develop, alongside a surpris- ingly, for these beautiful sweet wines, satisfactorily large crop. For Decanter, James Lawther MW covers the Right Bank and I cover the Left, so I did not taste Pétrus or Ausone, which he reck- oned were superb. However, I gave very high marks to Cheval Blanc, my other top Saint-Emilions being Figeac, Angélus and Canon. In Pomerol, La Fleur Pétrus, Le Pin, Trotanoy and Vieux Ch. Certan impressed me, also La Conseillante and Gazin. From Pessac-Léognan, Jean-Philippe Delmas has made the best La Mission Haut-Brion ever, balanced despite its 14.5 abv, and an extraordinarily rich Haut-Brion, both wines being for the very long term. My other favourites here were Haut-Bailly, Pape-Clement, Domaine de Chevalier, Malartic-Lagravière and Smith Haut-Lafitte. Over in the Médoc, I gave the first 20/20 ranking in my en primeur tasting career to Margaux, 19.5 to Lafite-Rothschild and Latour, 19 to Mouton-Rothschild, Montrose, Léoville-Las Cases, Léoville- Barton and Palmer and 18.5 (where the Decanter five-star rating starts) to Cos d’Estournel, Calon-Ségur, Pichon- Longueville-Lalande, Pichon-Longueville- Baron, Pontet-Canet, Léoville-Poyferré, Ducru-Beaucaillou and Rauzan-Ségla. For the rest of the Classed Growths, there was hardly a single wine below 16.5/20 (Decanter four stars), a rating I also gave to many Crus Bourgeois. There is no doubt that the First Growths will be very expensive, fuelled by demand from Asia and the handful of top “super seconds” will aim very high indeed, but these apart, prices should not be exorbitant for the quality. In any Bordeaux vintage there are unsung heroes. A few years back it was the Fronsacs, now it is the “simple” appellations of Bordeaux: Bordeaux Supérieur, 1ères Côtes de Bordeaux, Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Bourg. Such wines are the new Bordeaux.

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