Formidable wine at Chateau Latour in 2011

There’s no doubt that 2011 is an inconsistent vintage in Bordeaux. The same problems that affected the region generally also had a big impact in Pauillac. Here, as elsewhere, a combination of drought, a warm, dry spring, followed by a cool autumnal summer, with occasional severe heat spikes, knocked the growth cycle out kilter. Pauillac has some of the greatest terroir on earth of course. It makes it naturally well insured against the most meagre and challenging of years. Given too the extraordinary level of investment in the vineyards and the cellars over the past decade, plus obsessive attention to detail and daily micromanagement at the finest properties, it’s hardly surprising, then, that the best estates here deliver an extremely decent glass of 2011. So much so in fact you almost forget what a tricky harvest this was to grow and vinify. Almost….

Pontet-Canet: One of the best reds in a tricky vintage

Well that was an interesting primeurs week. Bordeaux 2011 is a fascinating vintage, though not for the reasons most of the producers would have liked. It’s a tricky, difficult year for the reds, because of the topsy-turvy nature of the growing season and a series of extreme events. First was the heat of the spring, more like summer, which led to rapid and precocious development in the vines. It pointed to the earliest ever harvest in Bordeaux’s history. Continuing drought followed by rain led the vines on a stop/start cycle and bunch ripeness became irregular. Searing days of heat in June [40C] also burnt the grapes in some places. Violent hail at the very beginning of September threatened to destroy a year’s crop inside half an hour in St Estèphe and rain in Bordeaux then, and in mid-September, also threatened a spread of rot, the fear of which may have led some producers to harvest grapes lacking in phenolic ripeness. Those who waited profited. Anyone working from a recipe book in this vintage was destined for trouble. It’s being described by many as a ‘technical’ vintage. It is certainly one that seems to separate the men from the boys.

Pessac-Leognan: Best overall commune in Bordeaux 2007?

Pessac-Léognan has a good claim to being the most successful Bordeaux commune in 2007 outside of Sauternes and Barsac. The quality of its dry white wines, not shown at the MW Institute’s tasting, are excellent and the reds seem, Pauillac notwithstanding, to be the most consistent and attractive in the vintage. Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion are very good as you would expect, and Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte and Chateau Pape-Clément very much up there too.

2007: The most disappointing vintage of the decade?

Well it’s certainly interesting to compare the best and the worst that Bordeaux has offered in the past decade within a few weeks of each other. If October 2011’s Union des Grands Crus 2009 tasting showed the impressive heights to which red Bordeaux has recently soared, then November 2011’s Master of Wine Institute’s tasting of the 2007 vintage showed the decades lows. To be fair what was actually most surprising was how the latter vintage has turned out. Tasted after bottling two years ago, I think you could safely say you’d find more joy in a Trappist monastery than in a glass of 2007 red Bordeaux. Moreover these were wines released in 2008 at such high prices for the quality that much cheaper thrills could easily be found elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, two years down the track and 2007 Bordeaux remains a pretty meagre and angular affair amongst the reds, but in the main they have generally rounded out for the better. Maybe they bear comparison to that other great ‘restaurant’ year 1997.