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Bordeaux 2010: confidence in vintage at start of en primeur
The 2010 Bordeaux campaign has started amidst considerable confidence on the part of chateau owners and the wider wine community.
At this early stage of a week that will see 5000 of the international wine trade, including 250 journalists, from 68 different countries, descend on Bordeaux for a week of barrel tastings, all the signs are that 2010 will take its place alongside 09 as a memorable vintage.
The summer of 2010 was extremely dry but temperatures remained low – conditions which one winemaker, Thomas Do Chi Nam at Chateau Pichon Lalande, took care to describe not as ‘drought’ but ‘water constraint’.
These conditions conspired to produce grapes – across the board – that were rich, high in alcohol, acids and tannins.‘It is a totally unusual vintage,’ Philippe Dhalluin of Chateau Mouton Rothschild told Decanter.com.
The first wine of Mouton, which has not yet been tasted by the majority of the press, contains 94% Cabernet Sauvigon, a good deal higher than the normal Mouton blend, which contains up to 18% Merlot.‘The Cabernet was of such high quality it was difficult for the Merlot to compete,’ Dhalluin said.
His satisfaction with the Cabernet is echoed by winemakers across Bordeaux, and they are also delighted with the Cabernet Franc – Anthony Barton at Leoville Barton was particularly taken with its ‘class and elegance and lovely red fruit flavours’.
The Merlot however has not been so easy. It is ‘the only shortcoming of the 2010 vintage,’ according to Bordeaux University’s annual vintage report, the vines affected by a variety of early fruiting problems and producing a very small crop.
Decanter's consultant editor Steven Spurrier, who so far has tasted Sauternes and Barsac as well as a variety of Bordeaux Superior and Cru Bourgeois in the Medoc and Haut Medoc, said at this early stage he would describe the vintage as ‘classic’.
‘While the 2009s were exuberant and rich, the 2010 is expressive and firm. There is no problem with alcohol and the ripeness takes away any leanness in the wines. I didn’t sense the tannins at all.’
• Decanter
• Tuesday 5 April 2011
• by Adam Lechmere
'Bordeaux Insider' 2010 Vintage Report Released to Public Ahead of En Primeur Tastings
A detailed report on the Bordeaux 2010 wine vintage has been released to the public as the world's top wine reporters gather in Bordeaux to taste and pass judgment on the 2010 vintage En Primeur. Usually only released to the trade, the report is being made widely available to the public by author, Bordeaux expert Bill Blatch. "2010 was a violent vineyard year that tested the vine's resistance to chaotic conditions during its grape formation, to extreme drought during ripening and to a high variation of hot and cold temperatures at the end," said Blatch.
(PRWEB) March 30, 2011
A detailed report on the Bordeaux 2010 wine vintage has been released to the public as the world's top wine reporters gather in Bordeaux to taste and pass judgment on the 2010 vintage at En Primeur stage.
The report, usually only available to the trade is being made widely available to the public by it's author, Bordeaux expert Bill Blatch, who said "It's contains the kind of information that can help anyone interested in wine make good buying decisions and will provide a great background to the tasting notes that are about to hit the world press."
2010: An Embarrassingly Good Vintage
Entitled 'An embarrassingly good vintage', the report charts the all important effect of the weather on the growth of the vintage.
"For the second year running we had an extreme vintage, but it seems that exceptional pairs of seasons always seem to coincide with very turbulent global meteorological conditions," said Blatch whose online wine company Bordeaux Gold specialises in Sauternes.
Back in November, many owners were already quietly confident that their 2010 was better than the already legendary 2009s but, coming hot on the heels of the hallowed ’09s, they seemed embarrassed to say it too loudly. Today, half of Bordeaux is less timid in assessing 2010 as great if not greater than 2009, whilst the other half is more reserved in such a judgment. But there is one point of total agreement: it is totally different from its predecessor.
"Both vintages have enormous concentration and high alcohols. Both have great power and weight. But there the similarities end," said Blatch. The 09s are wines made from gentle, progressive weather, with gradual concentration coming from perfect summer ripening whereas the '10s are robust wines made from more aggressive and extreme conditions and their concentration comes from more extreme de-hydration. They are the product of drought, of a more irregular sugar build-up in summer and a sudden re-concentration at the finish. And, most importantly, they get their higher acidities from the cooler autumn.
Crazy Weather Tested The Vines Resistance
In 2010, globally, the weather went crazy. The re-assurer Munich Re had to deal with 950 natural catastrophes, as compared to the 30 year average of 615. They caused 295,000 deaths and 97 billion Euros of damage…and the Australian floods are not yet in the figures, nor any earthquakes or tsunamis.
"Bordeaux was no exception," added Blatch, "it was a violent vineyard year that tested the vine's resistance to chaotic conditions: during its grape formation, to extreme drought during ripening and to a high variation of hot and cold temperatures at the end".
Yields Down For Top Red Bordeaux, But Up For Sauternes
These chaotic conditions have resulted in low yields for the reds, which is likely to affect pricing. Blatch explained "Very generally, top estates, which go to great lengths to weed out everything that is slightly imperfect, have produced between 10% and 30% less than last year."
The world's wine experts will be faced with a difficult task in Bordeaux this year as tasting the Reds in any number is going to be challenging, especially as the wines were much later developers, plus distinguishing between the different forms of the enormous tannins is going to be a detailed and tiring exercise.
Sauternes is the odd one out here, having been blessed with both excellent wines and a large harvest. "The 2010 Sauternes are less dense and less opulent than their monumental predecessor, yet these 2010 Sauternes and Barsacs make up for that by being the prettiest vintage of all time, with lovely, floral, uniformly pure and totally fresh-styled wines that are all the same - beautifully lush and sweet," said Blatch.
Bordeaux 2010: Spurrier lavishes praise on the Graves
• Decanter
• Tuesday 5 April 2011
• by Adam Lechmere
The Graves will be the wines of the 2010 vintage in Bordeaux, according to Steven Spurrier.
On the second day of en primeur, Decanter’s consultant editor has just finished tasting the white and red wines of Graves and Pessac-Leognan, at Chateau Pape Clement, and he is left in no doubt about the superlative quality of the vintage.
While Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth in the Graves, has been highly praised, other wines have been singled out for recognition.
Domaine de Chevalier, Malartic Lagraviere, Smith-Haut-Lafitte and Pape Clement itself, both the latter made under the consultancy of Michel Rolland, were particularly successful, Spurrier said.
‘Everything ripened perfectly,’ he said, quoting Jean-Philippe Delmas of Haut-Brion. ‘There is more fruit, more structure, more acidity and more extraction.’
James Lawther MW, who covers the St Emilion and Pomerol appellations for Decanter but was tasting alongside Spurrier in the Graves this morning, agreed that the wines were of extremely high standard.
On the question of the high alcohol content of the wines, which for many critics is still an issue this year – as it was in 2009 – Lawther is unworried.
‘Yes, the alcohol is high this year but that is not a problem because the acids in the wine soak up the alcohol. You don’t notice it.’
Spurrier added, ‘I have a particular affection for the Graves because they are such elegant wines. But they are often caught between two stools. If it’s a good Merlot year then the Right Bank gets it, and if it’s a Cabernet year then the Left Bank wins, and the Graves kind of falls in the middle. But I think this could be the Graves vintage.'
Both red and white wines are excellent, he said, but he reserved special praise for the whites.
'I have never tasted white Graves like it, never,' he said.
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