New William Kelley mega-article on Bordeaux today

[D_Pennet]

We ordered about six weeks ago and my partner talked with Boyer,he is very difficult to understand even for anative speaker.

The last vintage he released was 2012, not sure if he has more in the pipeline, he does hold a lot back.

We sell them because we can get them, I like them but would not go so far as to say they are revelatory. 1985 was the best one for me so far.

Boyer did his first vintage with his father in 1947 and has never changed a thing since: I do not know, if their methods of making wine were the norm then. What strikes me with BAMA is the signature running through all the wines is the same, just at different amplitudes according to the vintage.

I prefer bio-dynamic wines and champagnes not becaue I believe in bio-dynamics but it does way less damage to the enviroment and creates in my opinion more complex wines. If producers in Bordeaux are returning to a holistic approach and encouraging bio diversity, then I would not be worried about the wines being homogenous.

[William_Kelley]

Not yet. A synoptic article about contemporary Burgundy is indeed on the agenda. But will have to wait until the summer!

[William_Kelley]

Well, the article was intended to address just that kind of skepticism!

I think a problem has also been that no one has ever said that there was anything wrong. I don’t really understand how people who loved e.g. 2009 and 2010 Troplong can also love 2019 and 2020. It begs the question as to whether they have broad taste, or no taste at all. For me, to credibly praise 2019 you need at some point candidly to address what was being made before.

[William_Kelley]

My write up in TWA last summer covers your question I think:

“This singular estate, located on the plateau of Virefougasse in Margaux, has been described with some justice as the last of Bordeaux’s Mohicans. Octogenarian Jean-Pierre Boyer farms only a few remaining hectares of vines, many of them very old and co-planted with a medley of heritage vine material. Vinification is in cement vats, and élevage—all three years of it—is in cement too. Nothing has really changed here since the 1960s, when Boyer threw out his last remaining oak barrels, and that has both a good and a bad side. The vineyards are in poor shape, with many missing vines and weed competition managed with herbicides; sadly, at some point, it’s likely they’ll simply be replanted, and interesting vine genetics dating back to the late 19th century will be lost. The advantage, of course, is that for the time being the gnarled old vines produce low yields of concentrated fruit, without the influence of modern clonal selections. Similarly, if the wines sometimes exhibit more bottle (or is that batch?) variation than their more modern neighbors, Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre also recreates the style and balance of the Bordeaux of yesteryear: moderate alcohols, no veneer of new oak, notable aging potential—and no vainglorious consulting enologist! For my part, I love the wines; but they have sometimes made me think of the remark, misattributed to Nietzsche, that those who were dancing were thought mad by those who did not hear the music. Certainly, readers habituated to plush, rich, opulent 21st-century Bordeaux may struggle to appreciate them; yet those who are more deeply versed in the region’s heritage are likely to find more to enjoy. I’ll be publishing some older tasting notes on bottles from my cellar soon, but the 2010, still available on the marketplace today, is included here as one of Boyer’s greatest “recent” successes.”

[Marcu_Stanley]

Well, you’re certainly right that Troplong Mondot is a poster child for the excesses of 2005-2010 which were most severe in St Emilion. (Contrary to some implications in the article, I don’t think the over-extraction issues had fully set in during the first half of the oughts; 2000 is a great right bank vintage IMO). So definitely agreed for St Emilion in that period. But I think there were a lot of great left bank and Pomerol wines made during the oughts. Are you going to retroactively reconsider your glowing reviews for the 2005 and 2009 Montrose, or will we need to invent a new scale by which contemporary Montrose can be rated 101 ?

Then there’s the issue of different styles. In other settings you’ve praised Tertre Roteboeuf which violates many of the major rules you set out in the piece. Of course TR is somewhat sui generis and not to everyones taste at all so perhaps not the best example.

[Robert.A.Jr]

@Marcu_Stanley

Then there’s the issue of different styles. In other settings you’ve praised Tertre Roteboeuf which violates many of the major rules you set out in the piece. Of course TR is somewhat sui generis and not to everyones taste at all so perhaps not the best example.

Great point. TR is a distinct animal, as you note. I was always inclined to avoid it, but will admit to giving it a second look after WK’s various comments and notes some going back many years. While I cannot call this traditional Bordeaux - thought I think WK considers the work in the vineyards quite traditional, unless I misread - but will admit to really liking the so-called less ripe years, think 1999 and 2014. I would not buy years like 2010, 2015, 18, et al. Not really a wine I chase anyway, but it is a very unique wine.

[marc_d]

William, that was a great read and very educational.

I’m interested in fermentation and from the article it sounds like inoculation is much favored in Bordeaux vs a wild yeast fermentation. I suspect inoculation with yeast is the traditional method used, but it’s fascinating to read about some estates starting the fruit with non saccharomyces strains to protect from unfavorable microorganisms, the timing of cofermentations and the like.

Are there any Bordeaux estates that use wild yeast fermentation and avoid inoculation that you know of?

Given the warmer temperatures and higher risks of brettanomycetes and volatile acidity with unfavorable organisms, are they having success using wild yeast ferments?

Thanks

[Marcu_Stanley]

I think some ways TR runs counter to the “state of the art” laid out in the article is the level of ripening of the grapes and also deliberately running warm ferments (cooler ferments are highlighted as an important advance in the article). But of course I am far from an expert.

[Russell_Faulkner]

Not so many using wild yeasts. Planquette and Ormiale I know. The other ‘natural’ producers too probably but I’m not sure.

[Phil_T_r_o_t_t_e_r]

I’m late to the party (as is mostly the case since I moved) but thank you for this article. I feel like I’m the perfect audience for this. I don’t spend anywhere close to the time I invest in reading about Burgundy, Loire, Rhône or even South African domaines when it comes to the Bordelais. Where I feel somewhat educated about the practices of vignerons I enjoy in those regions, I’ve left Bordeaux as a somewhat opaque black box in terms of work at the vine and work at the chaï. That article inspired me to invest more time looking for such information for the Châteaux i normally gravitate towards but also for others that might become of interest. Great piece.

[Mark_Golodetz]

The debate centers around style and which paradigm you go for. I don’t think in a time of climate change, you can hope to compare the wines. For most of the twentieth century the objective was to bring alcohol levels up, and chaptalization was the norm. The challenge for todays winemaker is to make wines from ripe grapes without overdoing the alcohol. William’s brilliant analysis shows the problems and how the best estates solve them.

Ultimately I remain old school. Not only are the kinds of wine I love not easy to make, but the rewards for making them now do not justify the effort. The likes of Alfert and I are disappearing, and with good reason. The wines we love come from a different era, made by winemakers with long experience of making wines from Bordeaux barely sustainable climate. Three vintages per decade were good to great and two were semi disastrous. This is not a moneymaking model.

The learning on the job from father to son does not exist among the top estates (they do at a lower level). Fresh ideas, new techniques and most importantly of all, ripeness at a time of climate change have basically forced winemakers into making more modern styles.

Nor can we rule out the role of the critic. There is so much wrong with the modern scoring system, I am not sure where to start. The majority of critics have little formal training, in fact most trained as journalists rather than as wine people. They taste huge amounts of wine, so naturally it becomes more difficult at the end of each day to keep things straight, and score correctly after tasting fifty plus wines.

So fierce is the competition, that 95 point scores are thrown to the public like confetti, and the perfect 100 point score, once so rare, that it caused a frenzy, is now so ubiquitous that it inspires nothing more than a polite yawn. And that paradigm that happily accepts the modern paradigm only becomes self fulfilling.

It was interesting that Kelley whose palate I find reasonably close to mine, praised the 2021 vintage as hearkening back to the style of wine I enjoyed. I didn’t buy for three reasons.

1. They were too expensive
2. Although he is probably right I would love them, I doubt whether I will be around to enjoy them at maturity.
3. They are not of high enough quality to be investment wines.

So there you have it. Those wonderful low alcohol wines are unlikely to be produced again except under exceptional circumstances. They were produced in a bygone era for people who loved that racy style fashioned by people who learned their craft from their parents. The new buyer wants the high scoring wine and is not too worried by alcohol levels hovering at 14.5% plus, and the aging potential when the balance including acidity is just right. I feel lucky to have drunk the wines from these old days.

[Guillermo_M]

@Marcu_Stanley

Are you going to retroactively reconsider your glowing reviews for the 2005 …Montrose, or will we need to invent a new scale by which contemporary Montrose can be rated 101 ?

My impression is that 2005 Montrose (along with 2008 Cristal) is the pillar of consensus on this board. I think it’s the only thing Jeff and Alfert have ever agreed on. Don’t rock that boat please.

[JuergenS]

I did taste the 2019 Bordeaux from bottle (Union tasting Zürich). I do taste and drink Bordeaux for 40 years now. And I actually think 2019 was the best vintage I ever tasted from just released wines.

I don´t think 2019 Pichon Lalande i.e. is better than the 1982 because from a top bottle this wine is perfect. Many so called legends of the past will not be surpassed. But I think it is hard if not impossible to find a vintage with so many fantastic wines from any part of Bordeaux. In fact you had to search hard to find a wine from a well known Chateau which was not at least good to very good. The overall quality was great. It was fun to taste these wines due to their silkiness, balance and freshness.

The best part is: I guess this wines will be fun to drink at a relativ young age but will age beautiful because no lack of fruit, acid or tannin is obvious. So why should the wines fall apart? I see no reason.

Lucky those who bought the wines early because they were relativ bargains in todays market.

[Charlie_Carnes]

Agree. This is why I subscribed again, to the publication, after a long hiatus. The proof was always in the bottle.

[Charlie_Carnes]

This is, without a doubt, why I was so turned off by wine criticism. One could not love both styles, and purely objective criticism is hard to believe…

[Robert.A.Jr]

@Charlie_Carnes

This is, without a doubt, why I was so turned off by wine criticism. One could not love both styles, and purely objective criticism, is hard to believe…

I generally fall into that camp as well. That’s what made John Gilman so special during this “dark age” of Bordeaux, when it seemed like the vast majority, if not all of the critics were swooning over the opulent modernization of the entire region and anything touched, sniffed, or looked at by the omni-present Rolland.

[Brady_Daniels]

@William_Kelley

I don’t really understand how people who loved e.g. 2009 and 2010 Troplong can also love 2019 and 2020. It begs the question as to whether they have broad taste, or no taste at all. For me, to credibly praise 2019 you need at some point candidly to address what was being made before.

I hear you. But it’s a lot easier to differentiate if you hadn’t publicly endorsed those earlier wines. Being a critic, over many years, must be quite challenging.

If one’s paycheck requires access to all Bordeaux estates, it would be very hard to slam the top estates making wines in a popular style, even if one disliked it. Giving high scores to these wines might be a conscious decision, but could also be sub-conscious.

Could there be a critic who thought, “This is an overripe disaster of a wine, a monster without complexity or style, I hate it!” and then scored it 98+? I hope not!

[David_Bu3ker]

@Brady_Daniels

Could there be a critic who thought, “This is an overripe disaster of a wine, a monster without complexity or style, I hate it!” and then scored it 98+? I hope not!

It wasn’t a Bordeaux, but I still vividly recall Steve Tanzer using the words “for fans of this style” in reviews where he gave some very good scores. Made it clear that he thought the wine was not his cup of tea, but not objectively flawed.

[Mark_Golodetz]

@David_Bu3ker

It wasn’t a Bordeaux, but I still vividly recall Steve Tanzer using the words “for fans of this style” in reviews where he gave some very good scores. Made it clear that he thought the wine was not his cup of tea, but not objectively flawed.

No disrespect to Steve, but that is ridiculous. It is hard enough to taste a wine and score it for yourself. To try to extrapolate for somebody else’s palate, when you plainly hate it is plainly ludicrous. How can you possibly get it right when you are pretending you have someone else’s palate.

[David_Bu3ker]

Fell free to take it up with Steve.