Pomerol The wonderful Château Vieux, Château Certan, and an extraordinarily pure but almost impossible to procure Château Petrus are highlights of the Pomerol vintage, but they lead a strong field of merlot-based wines. The richly concentrated fruits, superb tannins structures and freshness are very impressive. Château La Fleur-Pétrus is also in brilliant form and promises to unfold spectacularly over the next decade. The rare and Lilliputian Château Lafleur has also produced a stellar vintage, albeit in minute quantities. Its second label, Les Pensées (de Lafleur) follows brilliantly in its wake. In addition, Château La Conseillante, which has received massive investment in recent years, has made a wine of remarkable intensity, precision and volume. Le Pin, a small patch of vineyard near Cattusseau, highlights the essence of its terroir and will no doubt attract attention from those who can afford it. I once had a friend who sold 12 bottles of the 1982 vintage to buy a car. While Le Pin epitomises the exalted and rarefied status of the region’s most prized wines, there are other wines that also resonate. Château l’Eglise- Clinet, Château l’Evangile, Château Latour à Pomerol, Château Certan de May, Château Hosanna, Château Trotanoy and Lafleur-Gazin will be extremely pleasurable to drink in the future. My pick for value, factoring in the inevitable price rises, is Château Gazin. The postage-stamp-sized Château Séraphine, best known among English merchants, has made a very good wine this year. The peacock’s-tail symbol – relating to the Krajewski family’s Polish Cavalry ancestry – is particularly apt this year because of the wine’s long tannin plume. Château Nénin and Château Clinet are also worth seeking out, as they have great cellaring potential. Bordeaux Blanc It has been noted many times by observers that hot dry weather does not promote the best of white wine quality. By early August many producers believed that the vintage would not bring anything exceptional. But it was reported by Professor Axel Marchel’s team at Bordeaux University’s Oenological Science Unit that ‘the June rainfall nevertheless helped to preserve a certain freshness and above all, unexpected aromatic potential, especially on clay and clay-limestone soils with high water reserves’.
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The Vintage Journal – International Series
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