Wine Words & Video Tape

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Posts Tagged ‘St Julien’

Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: St Julien

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

St Julien didn’t quite knock me out in 2010 as it did in 2009 but then that was an amazing, atypical year. And that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great vintage here or that the quality is uneven. The appellation remains the benchmark for homogeneity. Great wines have been produced at Chateau  Léoville-Las-Cases and Chateau Léoville Poyferré, both terrific are. Chateau Gruaud Larose is also looking wonderful in 2010, as good, but different from 2009 in fact. Chateau St Pierre also looks strong very strong. Still there is a lot of grip here, even the best wines, so fresh was the acidity and considerable the tannin in this fascinating vintage.

Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Chateau Léoville Poyferré

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

Didier Cuvelier is understandably proud of his 2010 Léoville Poyferré. He describes it as ‘2005, plus, plus’. It is a great wine. There is remarkable purity, concentration and depth on the mid-palate and terrific length. It’s in a more classical style than 2009, overall less knockout than I remember the 2009 was at the same stage but it is extremely good. Overall I tasted it three times last week and marked it between 94-97/100. Either way, lower figure or higher, it will turn out to be a great wine. Chateau Moulin Riche was less fabulous for me than the 2009 here, but it is still a very good wine, not a second wine [that is Pavillon de Poyferré] but an individual 22 hectare terroir in St Julien itself.

Bordeaux 2010: End of primeurs week

Written by JW. Posted in Bordeaux

After tasting two hundred plus wines in the past week, I’ve found plenty of fruit, tannin and acid, not always in that order, but certainly in number in Bordeaux 2010. There is a lot of everything in Bordeaux 2010. Lots of colour, often dense saturated colour across the board, but then there is also plenty of extract, tannin and acid, and then more acid and tannin still. It makes the wines a bit tricky to judge. In fact I spent a lot of time re-tasting wines because I found some difficult to evaluate. 2010 is a great vintage in many respects, but there is irregularity too. Winemaking judgement was exceptionally important in this vintage, with such dense, thick and concentrated berries those properties with a lightness of touch and flexibility have made the best wines. Those that have extracted too much have made monsters, with tannins and grip to match, not that the wines divide so neatly into those camps, I wish it were that easy. 2009 was undoubtedly more straightforward to judge at the same stage last year.

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