En Primeur 2011 Vintage Reports

 

The most famous and influential wine critic and writer in the world, Robert has been awarded virtually every honour the wine trade has to offer and been profiled internationally both in the trade and broadsheet/intelligent press. 33 years of en primeur tasting have given him an almost unassailable knowledge of the styles and developmental capabilities of Bordeaux wines. Robert is the founder of The Wine Advocate and scores wines out of 100.

This is a much better vintage than I thought it was before my trip to Bordeaux and could turn out to be close in overall quality to years such as the underrated 2001 and 2008. However, if prices do not drop dramatically for the 2011 Bordeaux, I do not think there will be any fine “futures” wine market in the civilized world that will buy these wines for delivery in 2014. It was not an easy growing season, as any of the extensive weather reports available on the Internet reveal. A warm, summer-like spring was followed by a cool summer, except for a nasty heat wave at the end of June that scorched those vineyards which had de-leafed and left exposed grape bunches to Mother Nature. The unusually cool summer and rain in early September then caused a major botrytis outbreak, and in many vineyards, specially in the Médoc, it was a race between getting the grapes adequately ripe and the sinister rot stampeding through the vineyards. However, the last two weeks of September and October were dry months and beautiful – for grapes and people. Overall, 2011, in spite of the unusually cool, overcast months of July and August, turned out to be one of the hottest years France has had over the last half century.

Tasting through the 2011s was not easy. While there is a shortage of truly profound, world-class offerings in 2009 and 2010, there is a lot of fine wine. Moreover, this is the type of vintage where the producers should price low and sell as quickly as possible, giving consumers something to get excited about. Everyone in the wine trade would earn some money, and blow out the wines at reasonable price points we haven’t seen since the 2008s. But don’t count on that happening. With the 2010s largely frozen in place as the whole world is cleaning up what’s left from the great 2009s (see Issue 199), the 2011s are largely going to bomb as “wine futures” unless the prices are dramatically decreased. My instincts suggest this is just not in the cards, at least the cards they play in Bordeaux.

Most of the wines will be drinkable in the next 5-15 years. Pomerol stands out as the most consistent appellation, but the prestigious appellations of the Médoc as well as the better St.-Emilion properties have all fared reasonably well in 2011. The crop size is small compared to 2010 or 2009, so there is not a massive quantity of these wines available. The lower pedigree wines from the more humble appellations and satellite appellations around St.-Emilion are more variable in quality, as one might expect in a vintage where selection was critical. The least consistent appellation, based on my tastings, was Graves/Pessac-Léognan, but that does not mean some top-notch wines weren’t produced there.

The bottom line is that it is hard to get emotionally pumped up over the 2011 vintage. To reiterate, the wines are better than expected. A lot of good winemaking has produced excellent wines throughout Bordeaux, but will they sell if prices do not drop significantly? I don’t think so, and neither do I have the answers, but let’s see how it plays out.

All of the wines were tasted between March 15-27, 2012.

[Read more on www.erobertparker.com]

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Tim Atkin is an award-winning wine writer and Master of Wine with 25 years’ experience. He writes regularly for The World of Fine Wine, Off License News, Intelligent Life, Gourmet Traveller Wine and Imbibe –he also appears regularly on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Tim is co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge and an extremely well-respected taster on the international scene. Tim scores wines out of 100.

The 2011 Bordeaux vintage is much better than many commentators, me included, thought it would be. It is obviously not as exciting as 2009 and 2010, but nor is it as expensive. If the prices are reasonable – and they need to come down more significantly than they have in the first few weeks of the campaign – this could be a drinkers’ vintage on a par with 2001...

[Read more on www.timatkin.com]

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Widely acknowledged as an expert throughout the wine trade, though less known by private clients, Bill Blatch is a powerhouse of knowledge on the Bordeaux region. He runs Bordeaux Gold, a website which was set up to inform, promote and sell the wines of Sauternes and Barsac. Companies specialising in Sauternes alone are virtually nonexistent, however Blatch has made it his mission for the last 30 years to know everything there is to know about Sauternes, and share his knowledge with others.

On Sauternes: 'There seems to be no doubt in anybody’s minds, especially mine, that Sauternes is by far the best part of the Bordeaux 2011 vintage. Thewines have superbly fresh acidity and beautiful fruit aromas yet also greatsweet concentration and classic botrytis character, all totally in what wemight call the modern style of great Sauternes. As such, I find it a superb vintage, not quite at the absolute level of 2001, or of the sheer opulenceof 2005 and 2009, but not far off, and, by its remarkable freshness, very different in style to any of these.

• Weather Favours Sauternes
  'The reason for this success is really quite simple: the Sauternes region, although blessed with marginally less extreme conditions during the growing season than the red wine areas, had basically the same weather that produced the same components of pronounced aromas and tight acidities everywhere. In Sauternes, the big difference was that the very same wet end-of-summer conditions which initiated the noble rot and the extreme dry heat of September and early October which produced such galloping concentration were exactly the same ones that, in the red areas, weakened rather than strengthened the grapes resulting in very fine but lighter wines.
   
• Early Harvest
  'The harvest generally got under way around 8th September, mainly to weed out the bad rot but also to pick some small quantities ofwonderfully fragrant yet concentrated noble rot. 
   
• A Year of Opulence
  'With most wines still not assembled, we have to assess the different lots and do the assemblage in our heads, and interpret as best we can the way these lots are marrying together... But the general character of the vintage cannot be denied. This is a year of opulence.'

[Download Bill Blatch's full 2010 Sauternes vintage report]

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Denis Dubourdieu is a scientist, vineyard owner and a wine maker. Educated as an agronomist, Denis has been a Professor at the University of Bordeaux since 1987 with research studies on yeasts, aromas and colloids. He is considered one of the top specialists in winemaking and the ageing of white wines. Somehow Denis also find time to run his family’s vineyards and act as a consultant to numerous wine producers in France and abroad.

Weather conditions in 2011 were abnormal and made it a difficult vintage to predict. The strange weather allowed for some excellent dry white wines as well as some very good Sauternes and Barsacs. The reds, whilst not homogenous, produced varied results but there were still some magnificent wines produced on both banks despite the unevenness.

• Exceptionally early flowering in Mid-May, induced by summerlike temperatures in Spring.
• The first two conditions that determine the quality of a good red wine vintage in Bordeaux, i.e. quick, early flowering and the beginning of water stress at fruit set thanks to hot, dry weather, were fully met by mid-June.
• Whole grape bunches were burnt by 40 °C temperatures in late June – Cabernet Sauvignon suffered the heaviest losses.
• Mid-Véraison occurred two weeks ahead of time in line with early flowering.
• Slow, uneven ripening of red wine grapes during a slightly warmer than average, but much rainier month of August than usual, followed by a particularly hot, dry September.
• Full ripening of the various varieties thanks to sufficiently dry months of August and September, but without excessive heat, was only partially satisfied.
• An early but extended harvest.
• Whites benefitted from early ripening because of a warm spring rather than a hot summer, the cool ripening period allowing for beautiful acidity and bright aromatics.
• Merlot grapes from clay and limestone are impressive, but those from gravel soils, sandy or silt soil were not as good.
• The majority of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are of very good quality but volumes were unfortunately low.
• Sweet white wines experienced a burst of noble rot which is very rare.

Overall Denis Dubordieu comments that the 2011 vintage produced ‘Astonishing dry white wines, less even quality for red wines than in 2009 or 2010, but many excellent and great Sauternes and Barsac.’

[Download Denis Dubordieu's full report in English]

[在中国读的报告]

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Despite not coming from a wine ‘background’, a passion for the vine began in the late 90s and Neal began writing his own wine website in 2003; he joined Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate in 2006 and is considered by many to be Parker’s natural successor in Bordeaux. Blessed with an exceptional palate and a clear, accessible writing style, Neal has quickly built up a following as one of the leading wine writers in the world. Neal scores wines out of 100.

Primeur is about examining the foundations of a wine, assessing its maturation and correlating that with their experience of older vintages so that you can conjecture upon its evolution.
Juxtaposing the 2011 wines against their 2009 and 2010 counterparts, not only is 2011 a notch below those vintages, but there is often a wide gap in quality. Where does it rank in the pantheon of recent growing seasons? Difficult to say...especially when you read Christian Moueix who places it behind 2008. This has to be reflected in my scores that may appear harsh at times. Don’t get me wrong: there are some very attractive, occasionally startling wines in 2011. The top estates have the means and knowledge to de-select dissatisfaction out of the vat. However, at the very least, a wine must a great opening i.e. bouquet and a great finish to remember it by. Whilst the aromatics are often attractive, the finishes were often not so much green; but lean, dour and unexciting and even a perfect élevage is not going to remedy that…It is a question of what these wines are going to offer after bottling. Remember, this is not the final say on the wine. What follows is just a look at the dress rehearsals, not the [final] performance of a wine.

On Sauternes and Barsac
Like 2007, Sauternes could turn out to be the star of the Bordeaux…Tasting the Sauternes wines in several organized flights, I found the wines to be generally high in quality, perhaps a notch below the more flamboyant 2009s but superior to the Zen-like 2008s. The general style is one of ample botrytis levels counterbalanced by racy acidity that lends the wines freshness and vivacity. Residual sugar levels tend to be high, yet the pH is low, so that occasionally one barely notices sweetness – a sign of top quality Sauternes with propensity to age. The superstars tend towards Barsac for reasons I have mentioned. It is no surprise that Château Doisy Daëne and winemaker/magician Denis Dubourdieu produced a startling Barsac in 2011, suffused with so much vibrancy, minerality and joy that I could not help smiling. It should turn out to be one of the finest Bordeaux 2011s in terms of value, although hedonists among you can always opt for his deluxe L’Extravagant de Doisy Daëne, which has a precocious bouquet and yet is beautifully restrained and focused on the palate. Tasting numerous lots with Bérénice Lurton and Frédéric Nivelle at Climens, I was impressed by both the purity of fruit and the spiciness of their major lots picked from the heart of the harvest. As usual, one has to intuitively envisage how the components will fit together, but there is a little doubt it will become an exceptional Barsac.

As I have already mentioned, Sauternes was a little more hit and miss, but it should not be ignored. The wines are restrained and very harmonious, “neat and tidy” wines that are often elegant and composed. I tasted the Château Yquem 2011 with Pierre Lurton and his team, a vital visit because they are armed with statistical data for the growing season. One interesting fact was that botrytis did not affect the outer berries as usual, but rather came from within bunches provoked by humidity. I was told that had they harvested bunches that were completely botrytized then potential alcohol levels would have been 30 degrees. Instead, they prudently picked clusters that contained golden berries on the cusp of botrytis alongside fully botrytized berries, in order to maintain balance and acidity. The result is a supremely elegant Yquem that is a master class in understatement, unfurling with each passing moment to reveal its purity and nuance. This is not a barnstorming performance but one of entrancing subtlety. Elsewhere there are superb wines from the likes of Château Suduiraut, Clos Haut Peyraguey, Rayne-Vigneau, de Myrat and a startling Rabaud Promis.

[Read more in the Wine Journal, on eRobertParker.com]

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