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Bordeaux 2006 at Two Years: Introduction

Now seemingly a fairly regular fixture in my annual tasting program, the Union des Grands Cru de Bordeaux roadshow - which shows the most recently bottled vintage in a series of tastings held across Europe, North America and Asia - recently hit London. For those familiar with the event, other than a short talk from newly inaugurated UGC president Sylvie Cazes-Régimbeau on the vintage and new plans for the UGC's Weekend des Grands Amateurs, it really was the usual affair. And that means over one hundred wines to assess (far too many to taste in the time allotted if they are going to be given due consideration), a similar number of proprietors and winemakers there to be interrogated, and lots of old faces ready to catch up on the latest news and gossip. But mainly, naturally, the name of the game is to take another look at the wines.

I have already provided some background details in my review of the vintage, but to recap 2006 was a potential rival to 2005 through to August, but this month was then uncharacteristically cool and damp, bringing rot and interfering with the veraison. The white varieties coped well with this cooler weather, and indeed may have even benefited especially where the dry whites are concerned, and they were harvested during a thankfully warmer September. But as for the reds, the conditions were not so good. Heavy rainfall meant that many Merlots were rushed in before phenolic ripeness had been achieved, although those that held out still had the raw materials for potentially very good wines. The Cabernets, which ripen later than Merlot, were picked in similarly dreary conditions. As for Sauternes & Barsac, there were on the whole three or four tries which brought in good but not breathtaking fruit.

Since then I have had two distinct opportunities to get a feel for the wines. Starting in April 2007 at the Bibendum en primeur tasting I found them underwhelming and rather hard work to taste. Although many wines had enticing, fresh, crisp fruit aromas, this often did not carry through onto the palate, where the wines frequently lacked flesh and substance. There are some good wines here or there, but I found none truly thrilling at that tasting. There was one excellent red wine, and that was La Conseillante (which I have tasted again at this event), but otherwise the real stars seemed to be the white Graves. If wedded to the Médoc, St Julien was my choice as most consistent commune, although there were some good wines from elsewhere.

What I noted at subsequent tastings, was that my first impressions of the quality of the white wines was confirmed, in April 2008, and perhaps more tellingly a number of initially disappointing red wines were showing much better also a year later. Quite how this happens during élevage is difficult to grasp, but those wines I had tasted twice seemed to have fleshed out considerably.

Nevertheless, despite this sign of improvement I approached the UGC tasting of the wines at two years of age with a little trepidation. I was expecting lean wines, an angular and poorly covered tannic structure, low levels of interesting fruit and overall I thought this day was going to be a disappointment. But in view of my experiences between April 2007 and April 2008 perhaps this was an unnecessarily pessimistic view? Having tasted around 80 wines on the day from across the major appellations of Bordeaux, and having found them better than I was expecting, I think it was.

I will discuss specific appellations over the next two weeks as I add my thoughts and tasting notes to this site but I will add a few general points here. First, the white wines of Pessac-Léognan are just as lovely as they were on my previous tastings. The two stars for me are Domaine de Chevalier and Pape-Clément, although there are many close contenders, including some wines that showed better on this tasting that previous, with tauter acidity and better definition. Secondly, the red wines show more middle, more flesh, the tannins on the whole were well covered, the wines are nicely set up for the cellar, and if the price was right (which it so often isn't today) then these would make very good buys. Having said that they are not perfect wines; even many of the better examples are a little short and only one or two show any real exoticism or the deep, concentrated and balanced structure of a great wine. I believe La Conseillante was the best wine of the tasting, just as I rated it in April 2007, although there were good wines across the board in St Julien, both Pichon-Baron and Pichon-Lalande impressed, and Pontet-Canet has produced one of the most substantial wines of the tasting, rich in ripe tannins and weight, in keeping with its new-found status as super-fifth. From Sauternes, the wines were good, and certainly fairly consistent, but very much without firm evidence of botrytis in most cases. (28/10/08)