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Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Chateau Margaux

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

Last November Paul Pontallier was expressing embarrassment at the potential quality of the 2010 vintage he had just put in vat. Just how could the estate follow on from the 2009? Again it’s a case of a different year rather than a better one, but 2010 is a beauty here. In terms of the harvest itself the vintage was more homogenous across the plots than in 2009, a year in which some of the younger Merlots did struggle a bit with the heat and the drought. That wasn’t the case in 2010 and there was more consistency to the harvest. This has had a knock on effect more for Pavillon Rouge which is terrific. As for the grand vin, it is exceptional, with remarkable purity and freshness. In the line up of first growths this year it is the most beautiful and seductive. For the first time the proportions of the grand vin and Pavillon Rouge are the same, at 38%, down 15% on 2009, with the remainder of the harvest going into the estate’s new third wine [as yet to be christened – or to be tasted…].

Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Chateau Lafite-Rothschild

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

Charles Chevallier and his team at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild have come up with the goods again, though that hardly counts as news these days. Hot on the heels of the perfect 2009 is a grand vin of extraordinary intensity in 2010. It’s not a better wine than 2009 but it is different. Maybe it doesn’t quite have the elegance and subtlety of the previous year but it is more classic, with more ‘volume’ as they put it at Lafite. It certainly feels like it has more power and concentration. It is a sublime and quite amazing wine, yet still with freshness and somehow ‘only’ 13.5 in alcohol. What terrific terrior they have. Carruades de Lafite too is a marvel in 2010, a ‘second’ wine that seems to have upped its game exponentially in the past few vintages.

Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Chateau Mouton-Rothschild

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

Tasted on my first morning last week, Mouton was also the first of the first growths I tasted. I can remember last year’s 2009 clearly and my impression was that in 2010 Phillipe Dhalluin has actually trumped that wine. I also thought that Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac had switched characters slightly, the d’Armailhac slightly more reticent and the Clerc Milon seemingly more forward and come hither. Subsequent tastings at the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux reversed this thought slightly, but there is no doubt that both have made exceptional wines in 2010, Clerc Milon especially. There is a concentration and a density to both these wines. Petit Mouton is also most certainly even better than 2009, and I was struck in general by the step change in the quality of the so called ‘second’ wines of the first growths tasted across the week.

Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Chateau Latour

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

There is no doubt that Latour has produced a set of extraordinary wines in 2010. There is profound depth, concentration and freshness here in the wines. Chateau Latour itself, which represents only 36% of the total production of the harvest, is dense and concentrated with real minerality and focus. It is outstanding. So too is Les Forts de Latour, a separate wine in its own right made from plots outside the main walled vineyard [the Enclos], but this year also including some fruit that usually would have made it to the grand vin. Les Forts was absolutely dazzling on the day and to me it is of first growth quality. It is 40% of the production, the remaining 24% going into a clean and very pure Pauillac.

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