In 2008 Sauternes and Barsac were not generally seen as having had a great year. It’s the first chance I’ve had to taste this vintage and the nine wines shown at the MW Institute tasting were better than expected overall. They had sweetness and fruit but perhaps did lack zip [acid] and that creamy botrytis stamp of the great years. That said I really enjoyed Chateau Climens, Chateau Clos Haut-Peyraguey and Chateau Rieussec. Chateau Suiduiraut looked very good indeed. Chateau d’Yquem was difficult to evaluate on the basis of the small sample size given but it had great length. Still I was a lot more excited tasting the 2010 vintage in Sauternes and Barsac at the UGCB a week later. More on that wonderful vintage for red, white and sweet white shortly.

Overall 2007 is a good sweet wine vintage in Bordeaux. Seven sweet wines were shown by the MW Institute [the first time they have included them in their annual tasting]. The wines are pretty full and sweet if lacking the race of 2009 and 2010. Time will tell just where they sit. Chateau d’Yquem is as amazing as ever, while Chateau Climens and Chateau Suduiraut are excellent and not far behind at all.

With the first Bordeaux 2010 releases starting to trickle out [at prices that seem on par to 2009] I’ve culled my tasting notes down by score for the vintage for the top thirty reds, the a dozen likely best value reds and then a dozen best dry and sweet whites as I saw it. It’s a snapshot obviously. Hope it’s helpful. The full notes for each chateau review can be found either by backtracking down the previous posts, through the search box or down under the Bordeaux Vintage 2010 profile.

Overall 2010 not as rich and sweet in feeling as 2009 but there seems more elegance here and maybe it is bit more akin to 2007 but with more strength. The best wines had great balancing acidity which makes them extremely fresh. I’d also imagine that the wines will be pretty long-lived. The wines are listed below in terms of how I’ve marked them. Chateau d’Yquem and Chateau Climens are the important exceptions here and were not tasted.