Bordeaux Futures 2007: first report

2007 Bordeaux Live FuturesFirst Report (April 1st, 2008)BORDEAUX 2007: SEPTEMBER WITHOUT AUGUST While August is in charge of making the must, September decides of the caliber of the vintage. Rainy, it destroys concentration acquired during August. Dry, it tends to make it up for the various lacks of the summer in variable proportions. 2007 goes into the vintages “saved” by the last third part of the vegetative cycle, as 1997, 2002 and 2004. Under these weather conditions, cabernet franc, petit verdot, and cabernet sauvignon perform better than merlot. As I already had the opportunity to explain to you during my chronicles between last July and November; in 2007, the new element concerns the work and thinking of the men involved in the will to give their wine the most consistent quality from one vintage to another. (See chronicles number #44 throughout #49) With this vintage, Bordeaux is probably going from the cult of the cellar to the one of the vineyard. This extra attention paid to the vineyard which began in the early years 2000, explains probably the quality of results obtained in such a difficult climate context. The latter does not forgive anything, especially when there is a lack of work performed before the harvest. Thus, results are heterogeneous. We can witness the success of properties rather than appellations. In these particular conditions, the vintage is shaping up a new hierarchy. I will pay attention during the work of my next reports in making stand out the outsiders that has escaped from the vintage’s profile and offers the most complete wines. For those, 2007 is a unique occasion of showing what is less seen when everything is good. SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER CONDITIONSApril 2007 was very hot and favored an early budding of the vines. In the context of everything said about climate change and temperature increase, everyone already expected that the summer would be burning hot as in 2003. At that time, the prognosis is favorable. It is known that great Bordeaux vintages are always early. May 2007 : Flowering arrived two weeks earlier than the normal date. The cool weather and rain disrupted it. All varietals suffered from coulure. This sprawl in flowering already induced some heterogeneity in quality. At that time, the prognosis is still favorable . The coulure did operate a natural reduction of the harvest that was expected to be abundant at the time. The heterogeneity of flowering also enabled anticipating the need for green harvesting in order to reduce it. June 2007 is twice as rainy as 2006 and 2005. The situation worsens. Mildiou, which arrived in early may settled in the young grapes and young twigs. It can destroy an entire harvest in record time. At that time, prognosis is very reserved. Everyone got concerned. Rain forces performing a lot of treatments as much as it complicates moving between the vines. Treatments are expensive against the very intense mildiou. De-leafing is necessary to fight against Methoxypyrazine (vegetal flavors). July 2007 was cool and humid. A mere 3 days with temperatures above 30°C, compared to 20 days in 2006, 12 days in 2005 and 5 in 2004. The Mildiou is persistent. The vine kept on growing while stopping its growth would have induced the beginning of ripening of the fruits. At that moment, prognosis worsens. Green works are an absolute necessity (de-leafing, suckering, green harvesting, removing the “entre-coeur” -the youngest twigs grown from the main branches - that appear very numerous after the rain falls) in order to prepare an unknown future. August 2007 remained cool and humid. Six days above 30°C were recorded compared to 1 in 2006, 10 in 2005 and 4 in 2004. The mildiou’ spread got contained. During the véraison (change of color during ripening), heterogeneity between varietals was slightly reduced. It was necessary to revisit each vines to eliminate all or parts of the grapes that stayed green. Rot did not settle in. On a few terroirs considered of being dryer started appearing some positive signs of water constraints. At that time, prognosis was generally very pessimistic. Overall, ripening of the red grapes was compromised. September-October : Summer 2007 arrived in September and stayed during October, with less than 40mm of rain over these two months. Well-prepared vines (high training, small yields, spreading of grapes on the vines, de-leafing) did benefit, as much as possible from this unexpected climate. Yet, ripening occurred slowly. Many times, harvest began before stopping the following day. Producers were searching for the right picking dates and for the perfect ripeness. Smoothness of temperatures enabled adapting the harvest to each plots. Such attitude was the key to success in this vintage. Actually, sending back a group of harvesting workers for 4 to 5 days also induced the risk of not finding them back available together to organize the rest of the work. Such climate, alternating heat during the day with cool nights allowed obtaining a lot of precursors of aromas that are so favorable to the taste of dry white wines as well as red wines. At that time, hope was reborn. Nevertheless, and once more, some people picked too early, white grapes as well as red grapes, or even too late. This is the reason to explain the difference of tastes that can be found in those wines. THE RESULTSDry white wines 2007 is the best vintage of Bordeaux white wines that I know. Wines have aromatic on nose and offer fat, ripe and vivid textures over the palate. Sweet white wines Result varies from good to excellent. Red wines Wines are very heterogeneous. Varying from good to excellent. Number of estates preserved their quality due to very strict selections (A mere 30% at Cheval Blanc, 32% goes into the Grand Vin of Château Margaux) The style of red wines Colors are rather purple and dark. The nose appear rather aromatic, with three trends: - some green characteristics indicating insufficiently ripe fruits, picked too early. - some fresh, ripe and very fruity characteristics. Those are the best. - Some cooked fruit characteristics, no doubt that they have been harvested too late. Palate: Smoothness, fruit and charm remain the common point of this vintage even when the level of potential tannin (known as IPT) is close to 70 (which is high). This is a very positive thing. This smoothness can be explained by high pH levels. Wines have low acidity making them particularly enjoyable. During barrel ageing, with acidity rising back, this vintage may gain better balance and a rather classic profile. For now, wines are not very present on entry, and mid-palate can be lacking. Finish varies from medium to long. Those are distinguished by their aromatic character. Tannins are particularly well coated and without roughness. 2007 is not a powerful vintage. For once in a long time, a lot of estates are presenting wines below 13% of alcohol (Mouton Rothschild, Palmer, L’Eglise Clinet). Of course, they could have been chaptalized or concentrated to reach a standard of 13%, but this was not the willingness of winemakers, who wanted to keep some natural balance in their wines. Finally, showing now as futures, this vintage does not appear to be of long ageing potential. Its main asset is to deliver instant pleasure. But be careful that some exceptions exist which succeeded in blending both charm with density. To summarize, in 2007, can be noticed both the objective climate conditions but equally important: the work of men. To which extent the human intervention can compensate the limits of 2007 vintage’s climate and play a plug part as a second terroir itself? This will be my research in all the tastings that I will describe in my reports. I am considering this vintage while keeping in mind the main results from the tasting I have published during the last couple of months. Almost all of them came in contradiction with what has been written down by the climate conditions. Just as a reminder, here they are:1997 – La Mondotte and Léoville Las Cases, although so different are leading this vintage. The heart’s delight notice that I gave to Dubois-Grimon, from Côtes de Castillon now 10 years ago appeared in a sensational fashion recently while finishing ahead of Pétrus. 2001 – It is now clear that some wines are better than 2000, such as La Conseillante, Latour, Trotanoy or Pape Clément. You can read some explanations from Chronicle #45 published on September 2007 for more details. Just before the 2007 harvest, Guy Meslin, winemaker at Chateau Laroze compared the end of the vegetative cycle of 2007 to the one of 2001. 2002 – Here again, results are denying all prognoses. I have in mind Palmer, Latour, Lafite, Ausone and Montrose. 2004 – This is the typical vintage marked by the end of the vegetative cycle. On the paper it is more favorable to the left bank than the right bank. And yet, some Pomerol in 2004 are of a high level: Vieux Château Certan, L’Eglise Clinet and Clos L’Eglise. And some 2004 are better than 2003, Haut Bailly just to mention one. To be continued! Next report on Wednesday, April 2nd. I will be back with you Jean-Marc Quarin ______________________________________________________________________________ © 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

2007 Futures live

Bordeaux Futures 2007: first report

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