Chronicle 26. The current situation of the 2006 Bordeaux vintage. Montrose, Cos d'Estournel, Léoville Poyferré 2003

Whats happening on the estates The current situation of the 2006 vintage Montrose / Cos d'Estournel / Léoville Poyferré 2003 Chronicle n° 26 (September 1st, 2006) WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE ESTATES - Vincent Millet, the quality manager at Château Margaux for ten years, has taken over as manager at Château Calon Ségur. - Paulin Calvet, the owner of Château Picque Caillou but also a commercial executive at the Maison Jean-Pierre Moueix, has left his salaried job to devote more hands-on time to his estate. - M. Didier Thomann, the cellar master at Rauzan Gassies, has just found a job which suits him at Château Léoville Poyferré, a château which goes from strength to strength according to my notes since 2002. - In Burgundy, Pascal Marchand has left the Domaine de la Vougeraie. He has been replaced by Mr Pierre Vincent. Since 2000, Pascal Marchand has invigorated the wine of the Domaine, giving it new quality. I will write about the wines of this Domaine soon. Here and now, I recommend that you try the incredible Clos Blanc de Vougeot 2002 . This cru is a monopoly of the Domaine de la Vougeraie and is one of the rare white wines of the Côte de Nuits. This wine, tasted twice with an average score of 95, is a concentrate of elegance. It has a great, very complex nose of truffle and citrus. Superb mouth, both fleshy and tight. The finish is very persistent. The most surprising thing is that it is not marked by the expression of the Chardonnay. Contact: Mr Pierre Vincent - Web site: www.domainedelavougeraie.com E-mail: vougeraie@domainedelavougeraie.com THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE 2006 VINTAGE After an exceptionally hot month of July, Bordeaux has just lived through a cool, even chilly, August with temperatures going down to 12° some nights. Two such contrasting months have made it difficult to take the decisions in the vineyards as to how best to prepare the harvests. Indeed, the heat wave in July called for little thinning of the leaves in the expectation of a hot, dry August. But then, quite on the contrary, the cool weather which arrived right after the first week of August prompted thinning of both grapes and leaves. Due to annual holidays, this second thinning only took place at the end of August. Setting apart the feeling that August did not live up to expectations, here are a few surprising statistics: in Saint-Emilion, Pessac-Léognan and the Médoc, the rainfall in August was less or barely equal to the average of the last ten years. There were between 45 and 55 mm of rain, of which 25 mm fell on Friday, 25th August! In short, the vines did not get very much water, even if the humidity in the air remained high. I often thought back to August of 2002 and 2004. Well, in Saint-Emilion, there were about 92 mm of rain in August 2002, and 94 mm in August 2004. For the time being, the forecast is for temperatures of 28 to 30° this coming weekend. Once again, September will be the key which unlocks the door. The Merlot has a few days’ advance on the normal cycle, and the Cabernet is within the average dates. The volume of the harvest seems to be large, and all the green jobs, such as thinning of leaves, or green harvesting, necessary. The rainfall of this last week of August has swollen the grapes. The bunches seem more compact. As a matter of fact, the date of the harvest has been postponed by a week from the date first imagined, that is to say, around the 20th-25th September. At the moment, the principal aim of industrious winemakers is to maintain the grapes in a good sanitary condition to allow them to make the most of the good weather they are hoping to get soon. The principal danger remains that of botrytis (grey rot) which appears on vines which have not had their leaves thinned and on grapes in tight masses. There is a very positive sign: the vines have stopped growing. All their energy is concentrated in maturing the fruit and no longer in the growth of the plant. The white grapes, for example, already have a good level of sweetness. From a commercial point of view, these weather conditions are contributing to the preservation of the extraordinary image of 2005. Those who invested in that vintage can rejoice. MONTROSE / COS D'ESTOURNEL / LÉOVILLE POYFERRÉ 2003 Since bottling, tasting Montrose 2003 is not at all like it was before. Those in charge at the château consider that its current closing down is part of its normal evolution. To be more precise, I would say that, since bottling, it has begun “to recuperate” at the château, while, if it has been transported, it still remains very closed. Here it was tasted beside Léoville Poyferré and Cos d'Estournel from the cellar of a private individual who lives outside France. The same bottle of each was served partly non-decanted, decanted and then decanted and left for twelve hours. The tastings were blind. Non-decanted Léoville Poyferré offers great suavity in the mouth. Tender, the wine falls off a little before coming back at the finish. 93 Cos d'Estournel . An intense, fine, strong nose. The mouth is mellow and dense, and then deep in the second part. A pleasing style, close to that of Léoville Poyferré. 94 Montrose . A spicy, woody nose. It begins ample in the mouth, but becomes tannic very quickly. Its solid aspect is typical of Saint-Estèphe. No charm to be found here! 92 Decanted Léoville Poyferré betters its result, especially in the mouth. It no longer falls off. On the contrary, the wine gains fullness everywhere. It ends long, fat and complex with an enormous amount of charm. The score goes up to 95 . Cos d'Estournel . It has a praline nose with well measured woodiness. The fat, ample wine ends with fruit and wood. Decantation makes little difference. 94 Montrose . Its harshness has disappeared, but I remain frustrated at the finish. 92 Tasted blind 12 hours later Léoville Poyferré . The fruit has disappeared! The wood is in evidence, and the finish is granular. So much air does not do it any good. It is far less good than before. 92 Cos d'Estournel . The nose remains fresh, less complex, spicy and woodier than Montrose. The pulpy, strong mouth ends on a slightly lively note. The style of the aromas and the structure evokes the charm of Burgundy. 93 Montrose . It has the deepest and most intense nose. I recapture cherry and that subtle mix of freshness and maturity which defined it before bottling. The mouth is strong and tight, but less austere than at the first tasting. A meticulous touch. The very great finish is complex but still more tannic than during maturing. 95 Conclusion Three superb wines. Two which have such charm that it is impossible not to yield to it: Léoville Poyferré and Cos d'Estournel, and then a Montrose which, in 2003, remains a firm wine when compared to the tenderness of the other two. In the end, even very mature, Montrose keeps its reputation as a brawny wine. Going beyond the publication of these notes, I wonder about the way these wines were matured. I think that it conditions the way they behave in the air when an amateur opens these bottles which are ready to be appreciated more or less quickly. The consultant for Léoville Poyferré is Michel Rolland. Since the film Mondovino, he does not hide the fact that he makes use of micro-oxygenation. I will shortly ask Mr Cuvelier, the owner of Léoville Poyferré, if he uses this technique. Between Cos d'Estournel and Montrose, the latter maintains more traditional maturing. Since Cos d'Estournel was sold, the cru has turned a little more towards new methods. This tasting, like others that I describe below, asks the question whether the dissolving of oxygen (micro-oxygenation) during wine-making (vinification and maturing) changes things apropos of decantation and even the length of life of the wines. Not long ago, I tasted the Valandraud 2003, non-decanted and decanted. I preferred the non-decanted (91) as I did for 2002 and 2001. I tend to think more and more that decanting a wine which has already been in contact with the air a lot during its method of maturing hardens the tannin instead of mellowing it. Here is another experience. A friend poured me two wines of the 2000 vintage to taste blind: Château Margaux and Pavie . I think that the great wine is Margaux; he does not like it. As it happens, the more pleasant of the two is Pavie, more open and more tender, thanks to the use of oxygen. Margaux remains austere but leaves me with a strong sense of potential. We tasted them again after six hours in the decanter. Margaux really takes off here. It recovers its great, fine, complex nose of Cabernet Sauvignon. Even on swirling, it continues its progress. (Very aerated wines have the same nose at first nose and after swirling.) As for the mouth, it has become magnificent, full and open, while still keeping immense freshness, exactly that which is cruelly lacking in Pavie. But what does it matter as everyone would have drunk it without even decanting it! Finally, we tasted them again 36 hours later. Pavie, very oxidised, smells of Port. Margaux, imperial, has the great coffee nose of traditional Bordeaux wines. On swirling, Pavie smells of plum and eau de vie. Margaux keeps its finesse. In the mouth, Pavie is agreeable, less oxidised than the nose suggested, but blander than Margaux. Château Margaux remains tight but tender. The tannic grain is less fine than after six hours’ decantation. In the end, the difference between these two wines was that one – Pavie – seemed at its best right from the first tasting and the other – Margaux – did not reach its best until six hours later. How is it possible to compare them? Michel Rolland is the consultant for Pavie, Valandraud and Léoville Poyferré. Cos d'Estournel takes its ideas from Jean-Luc Thunevin, the owner of Valandraud. Margaux is part of a different, even opposite, school of winemaking. I went to Figeac, the antithesis of the Rolland school. I tasted the 1998 which I had already tasted marvellously last January. Non-decanted, the wine is austere, firm and unexpanded (90) . The rest of the bottle, decanted, has fullness, a better flavour, a more caressing touch and a great length (94) . For the time being, I have noticed that the wines made with the (very legitimate) desire to please very early unfold better when non-decanted. Well, if the techniques of winemaking are changing, at the other end of the chain, the consumer still applies methods of consumption copied from techniques called “classic”, sometimes evolving, or even totally superseded. A pretty paradox! Into the bargain, the technique which consists in swirling to see if the wine is not hiding any defects or if it becomes any better makes no sense any more. Very often, this type of wine remains the same, whether it is swirled or not. Why apply these stages in sensory analysis to try to make something reveal itself if there is nothing left to be revealed? I note that things are evolving towards simplification, which brings with it the loss of a whole culture. In itself, nothing disturbs me, it is a question of establishing a simple fact: by becoming more obvious, clearer, more approachable, is wine not losing its mysterious dimension? Doesn't the latter, in leaving room for dreams and innocence, sell just as much as the new simplified version? My subject concerns a very small percentage of Bordeaux wines, but the best rather than the less good. It is in those crus that research is carried out whose results may frame tomorrow’s standard. Think of me when you swirl your next glass of wine! Enjoy the report! Jean-Marc Quarin My next chronicle will be published on September 15th, 2006. _______________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author: Jean-Marc Quarin Sarl, 10 allée de Ginouilhac, BP 40, 33320 Le Taillan-Médoc. France. Tél. 00 33 (0)5 56 35 83 93. Fax 00 33 (0)5 56 35 86 50. E-mail : jmquarin@wanadoo.fr

2006 Chronicles

Chronicle 26. The current situation of the 2006 Bordeaux vintage. Montrose, Cos d'Estournel, Léoville Poyferré 2003

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