Overall Pomerol has produced some very vibrant wines in 2011 despite a tricky growing season. Maybe the clay soils that the region is famous for helped guard against the early drought and heat spikes. September rain too undoubtedly affected some and rot would have been a concern. There is variability here, however, particularly among the less well known estates. Some display under ripe characters, others have over extracted, some, it seems, are green and extracted. It’s the usual 2011 story then, here ,as elsewhere. Making the best wines needed laborious work in the vineyard, the grapes required strict selection at harvest and the resultant wines suited a gentle hand in the cellar.

Only half a dozen wines from Pomerol were on show at the MW Institute tasting but overall they felt ripe and full with better handled extraction and far less dry tannin than in St Emilion. Nice full flavours and some style here. 

If the seven wines below are any guide to the way the 2009 vintage is progressing in Pomerol, the vintage looks very exciting indeed. Chateau La Conseillante, Chateau Clinet and Chateau Petit-Village are outstanding wines. La Conseillante was the least impressive of the trio when tasted last April, but it has moved on significantly in terms of weight, depth and complexity. Chateau Clinet is gorgeous, simply dazzling. Just beneath this stratosphere, but only just, Chateau Gazin has produced a terrific wine, certainly the best I’ve had from this estate, though it’s not quite the bargain it once was. Not that you really get bargain Pomerol these days, but Chateau Beauregard and Chateau La Pointe provide real bang for your buck, La Pointe especially which has produced a sumptuous wine.  Chateau La Cabanne feels a bit pedestrian by comparison but it’s a pretty good effort in itself.

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.