Knowing full-well that Rimmerman is the master of hyperbole, did you notice his recent comments re: 2016 being the new 1961?
I have noticed a LOT of 2014 Bordeaux coming up for pretty good deals lately just prior to delivery.
Could this signal they are dumping inventory with a better 2015 and 2016(the REAL vintage of the century) coming up?
Anyone with better info on this?
Only the seventh vintage of the century since 2000 (2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016). Gotta love Bordeaux
It seems like reports are all over the place on 2016 - recent ones I’ve read are more along the lines of that the Bordelais are excited because they though the vintage was going to be a disaster, but then the August and September saved it. Ripe with high acid and tannins in the reds. I saw comparisons to 2004 and 2006 but better.
I am old enough to remember when you just had to have Bordeaux 2000…Turn of the millennium, great vintage, blah blah blah. Now it looks like a nice, but pretty middle of the road year, with good and bad wines. It was that year that rang the Nigerian Bank Account bell for me. (Now if you just send us a deposit on “futures” to cover administration costs for now, we will process you bank account and deposit 17.5 million dollars with you) Honestly, after 2010 are the sheep going to fall for the hype AGAIN. Perhaps it will be a nice vintage, perhaps not. But I am in the camp that wine can only get good to a point…What are we expecting? Super fruit? Extra balance? Another yawn…
What I hear is “blah blah blah”. Perhaps you get a bit jaded as you get older, but there is only so much vintage of this, vintage of that makes you want to rush out and buy. There will always be a “better” year another year.
I was in Bordeaux last week, and to a person they all said they felt 16 was trending ahead of 15 at this point. Hyperbole or not, it seems that they’re taking a consistent message into the tastings.
It’s sales hype. Been hearing this stuff for 50 years.
Sorry guys, but the indications I have heard this may be something quite special. Several winemakers not given to hyperbole prefer this to 2015, 2010 and 2009. A close friend said he was sorry I was missing Primeurs, because “it’s your kind of vintage.”
Jean Marc Quarin, one of the most level headed critics, wrote
“This vintage has something genius, unusual, fantastic and inexplicable about it.
The red wines are dense, very fragrant, rich, full, with a soft touch on the palate, velvety and a great depth of flavours. Everything is so flavourful, such bright fruit, such a refined tannin grain, with such a strong note of pleasure that 2016 will make the 2010, which I love, look rustic.”
Not saying at this early stage it is true, but you remember the story about the boy who cried wolf? This may be the year where there is actually a wolf.
So far as I know, no one has ever said that about 2003
Any early indications of pricing relative to 2014 and 2015?
They did at the time, it was touted as equal to 2000.
Yeah, and when will it be ready? Probably after I’m dead and buried!
That lasted until people other than Parker tasted the wines. The 2003 went crash.
I’d be interested in seeing any evidence. I don’t think that is true
From Spectator (James Suckling).
Some of the Left Bank wines with high levels of Cabernet Sauvignon really are mind-blowing; I rated the vintage 95 points (on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale) for the Left Bank, which includes the Médoc and Pessac-Léognan. The Right Bank wines (including Pomerol and St.-Emilion) are rich and exotic, although some verge on jammy, and I rate the vintage there at 94 points.
However, only a small percentage of the wines I tasted are truly of classic quality (95 to 100 points). Most of the big names in Bordeaux made outstanding wines (90 or more points), but they are not quite at the level of the 2000s. Regardless, many lesser-ranked estates made juicy and fruity reds that will give great pleasure when they are young and will also improve with some bottle age. But 2003 is not a monumental vintage such as 2000, 1990 or 1989—or, dare I say it, 2005, if early reports from Bordeaux are right.
A couple of wine merchants at the Los Angeles tasting voiced some concern about the low acidity of the wines. One even called the wines “not very Bordeaux.” But I don’t think the acidity is any lower than in many other hot vintages in Bordeaux. And I think that there is enough alcohol and tannin concentration to give the best wines of the vintage long lives. Just look at how the best wines of other well-regarded yet low-acid vintages are doing, including 1928, 1945, 1947, 1959, 1961 and 1982. Great bottles from these years are still glorious.
Strangely, both left- and right-bank vintage charts from Spectator show 00 and 03 as virtually identical in quality - 95 for both 00 and 03 on the left bank and 93 vs 94 for 00 vs 03 on the right.
(Not endorsing the viewpoint, just posting some info)
So 2014 was the year that was better than 2011, 2012, 2013.
2015 Bordeaux made a fuss about it was the best since 2010.
Are we now saying 2016 is like 2010 or even 2005?
Vintage of a millennia now?
Pessimists abound but good vintages to great vintages will abound with technology…you shouldn’t see a 75, 84, 93, etc…again, there is just too much to save it and have the lowest quality vintage be light years ahead of the 70s and 80s.
Good and bad for me as my first born was 2016, so I’ll stock up and hope it stays the next 61, not that I’ve ever had a 61 personally being a 75 baby.
I’m proud of myself for sticking to my guns. The 2015 vintage is the first major vintage I can recall where I did not buy futures. I doubt I buy 2016 regardless of the hype. I’m in my back-fill years.
My plan, continue to back fill on 2010 and 2005, wait until these vintages are released, then see how I feel about them. I’m a young Bordeaux lover, and even I have quickly grown tired of these proclamations when we have such an embarrassment of riches. Style is just as important to me as quality.
I mostly did not buy '09 and '10 because of crazy prices. Mostly skipped the weak years of '11-'13. Now I find myself intrigued by the '14s. Locally I am seeing Montrose for $125, Lynch Bages for $90, Smith Haut Lafitte for $65, etc. Anyone buying '14s in bulk? Or holding off for '15-'16s?
Thanks,
Tom