Well, all the early signs are that Bordeaux 2010 is indeed a terrific vintage, truly remarkable given that it follows immediately behind the extraordinary 2009s. Early days still of course but tastings today at Chateau Haut Brion in Pessac, Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac and Chateau Cheval Blanc in St Emilion were, shall we say, exciting. I also had a quick look at half a dozen Pomerols at the Cercle Rive Droite’s tasting and I’ll head back again later in the week for a more in-depth visit. All were saturated in colour, full of extract and generally delicious.

Amongst the ’A’ list tasted today Mouton looks to have made a wine better than 2009 in my opinion, full of flavour and concentration yet also with great freshness, Cheval Blanc has produced a beauty worth of its enviable terrior and the Pessac duo of Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion and Chateau Haut-Brion are simply fabulous – La Mission weighing in at 15 degrees but none the worse for it. Their white wines too are impressive and bode well for the overall quality of the whites in 2010, even those that sell at a fraction of their price.

The characteristics in brief are high alcohols, high extract and high tannins. If that sounds a mouthful then be surprised because so far I have been. The acids are OK, cool nights in August and September [it got down to 5C at night in some vineyards] helped preserve acidity and freshness despite the drought conditions. Generally the lack of water led to grapes that were small and highly concentrated, in grape for grape terms lighter than 2009 in some cases, suggesting real concentration. The vintage chosen for comparison by proprietors is more the 2005 than 2009 stylistically because of the former’s structure and tannin, but the 2010 wines look to be even richer and higher in alcohol than ’05 so for me so far it seems to be a hypothetical mix of 2005 and 2009s structure and ripeness, which is pretty exciting.

This is just a snapshot and I’ll report in more depth later. Today’s highlights – Mouton is in the 98-100 point range along with Haut-Brion and La Mission just as fantastic. Cheval Blanc looks 98+ in my book and Léoville Poyferré around 94-96, excellent once again, but maybe not as knockout fab for me as their 2009. I’ll taste it again later in the week, so reserve judgement ‘till  then. Certainly it’s concentrated and layered. Tomorrow the Union des Grands Crus start their tastings and St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux along with the Médoc and Haut-Médoc cru classe are in my sights. I’m also squeezing in Cos d’Estournel too. I’ll update soon.

The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux held its annual horizontal tasting of the most recently bottled vintage, in this case the 2008 vintage, on Tuesday at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House. It’s a great event where you have a hundred plus Chateaux proprietors all under one roof showing their wares – although there is never quite enough time to taste them all. More detailed notes will follow and the vintage profiles will be updated. Sadly I missed out on Sauternes and Barsac, despite skipping lunch to continue tasting, the end of session bell being rung just as I arrived at Bastor Lamontagne…I don’t know how I quite managed that error. Nevertheless overall tasting the 2008s reds was a far more enjoyable experience than working through last year’s austere, tricky 2007 vintage. The few whites from Pessac-Léognan I tasted looked very racy and attractive with more zip than 2009.

2009 is a wonderful vintage for Sauternes and Barsac. It is not that common that the conditions for a great red wine year provide the same conditions for a great sweet wine year but this does look to be the case in this vintage. Although it is early days the wines in general have a wonderful delicacy and balance and the warm year produced ripe fruit, high in flavour and with high potential alcohol.

2009 is a beautiful vintage here in Pomerol. Lovely wines full of attractive fruit with concentration and intensity. Extraction very much in check compared with St Emilion. Seductive and packed with fruit, these are wines that should be approachable early and some are already showing well. The following were tasted at Chateau Gazin as part of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tastings.