This past week, I attended a Cercle Rive Droite de Bordeaux tasting that gave me my first look at 2010 Bordeaux barrel samples, with about 25 wines from Right Bank appellations like St. Emilion, Pomerol and their nearby satellite regions like Lalande-de-Pomerol, Lussac St. Emilion, Puisseguin-St. Emilion, Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac. Some of you may know that, in the wake of all the hype about 2009 Bordeaux being a great vintage, perhaps a “vintage of the century”, that the owners of many chateaux have been proclaiming the 2010s to be even better – and frankly, almost every chateau representative (most of them owners/winemakers) I talked to said exactly that.
So, the question on many wine drinkers’ minds is, is 2010 really as good as, or better than 2009? My preliminary answer, at least based only on the merlot-dominated wines that I was able to sample is…. close, but not quite. However, I would put one significant qualifier on that statement – if you tend to like the classical style of Bordeaux more than the ripe and powerful style of vintages like 2005, 2009 or 2003, then the 2010 vintage may be just the thing for you, as it’s a strong vintage in my book.
To make some preliminary assessments of 2010, I feel this vintage nails the right balance between ripeness of fruit and structure for a classically styled vintage – somewhere between the styles of the 2000 and 2006 vintages for me – slightly better than 2006 perhaps but not quite up to 2000′s level based on the wines I tasted. In any case, the 2010s succeed where the 2008s fall short in my opinion – showing a plummy but fully ripe acidity and tight structure that I prefer to the tarter plum flavors and coarser power of 2008s. Indeed, many of the chateaux were pouring their 2008s as well, and in almost all cases I rated the 2010 versions more highly.
Many chateau owners pointed out to me that they harvested later than ever in 2010. Although this no doubt helped them get to full phenolic ripeness on their fruit, nonetheless the 2010s feel less ripe than the 2009s, which may be a relief to those who found the 2009s overdone. Many of the wines, to me, showed a slightly cool character, manifested by the profile of the fruit, the occasional herby/leafy/underbrushy notes, and sometimes a peppery spice (the last of these perhaps helped along by oak as well). Tannins were definitely more noticeable than in the 2009s, but not insurmountable at this point. It will be interesting to see if these characterizations hold true in the Left Bank wines as well.
My top 2010 wines for the day were Magrez Fombrauge (tightly structured with excellent fruit) and Clos L’Eglise (Pomerol) for opulence. In the value category, I liked Ch. Gaby, Ch. Fontenil and Ch. Guibot de la Fourvieille from satellite regions. Wines that seemed to be in an awkward or reticent phase included wines I have generally liked in the past, like Ch. Rol Valentin and Ch. Fleur Cardinale. A few strong performers from last year’s tasting, including Ch. La Fleur de Gay, La Vieille Cure and Fleur de Bouard, were disappointingly not present this year.
Full tasting notes on the 2010s on my blog; wines tasted from 2007-2009 vintages will appear in a separate post soon.
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