Vintage of the century - YET AGAIN? '09 Bord article

WINE TALK
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A vintage year: France anticipates finest Bordeaux wines in 60 years | The Independent | The Independent" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My favorite quote:
"Alfred Tesseron, proprietor and manager of the Château Pontet-Canet in Paulliac, one of the most prized of Médoc clarets, will be harvesting his last grapes this weekend. “Of course it’s too early to be sure,” he told The Independent last night. “But already in 2005 I thought that I was a lucky man to see such exceptional grapes in my lifetime. Now it seems that I may be lucky twice. The weather patterns of the two years were very similar but, if anything, the cool nights in September could make 2009 even better.” "

Oh boy, we all should be so happy to get ‘lucky’ twice in a mere 1/2 decade with 2 vintages of the century…

Either global warming is creating some crazy weather trends never seen in France before, or the French have the marketing machine on repeat.

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First and foremost the BDX folks are masters of marketing…winemaking evidently comes second.

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Lance - not sure what you’re complaining about. The next vintage is going to be 2010 and they’re supposed to have 2 vintages of the century in every decade. They’ve only had one so far and don’t want to let the decade pass without another. The Rhone got the Parker nod for 2007 and that’s the third one already - 2001, 2005 and now 2007 and some of those prices are reaching Bordeaux levels. And the Rhone doesn’t even have a huge futures campaign for heaven’s sake! If I were in Bordeaux I’d do the same thing - start declaring early and often that this is the vintage that can’t be missed.

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I hereby call that 2011 will be the vintage of the century for Bordeaux.

Posted exclusively on WB.

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Is it possible that will enough “vintage of the centuries” in any given shortist time period that prices will come down?

I’m thrilled about the potential for a great 2009, as I’m hoping it will drive pricing on the 2008s down to the point where I can comfortably stock up. Just look at what 07 Rhone pricing is doing to 05 and 06 rhone prices, can we hope for the same thing in Bord?

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To be fair, Pontet Canet has been on the upswing lately, increasing their quality steadily since 1996 – so I have no problem with Alfred saying he believes this crop is the best he has seen.

There really is only so much recent-day history with which to compare it - unlike its neighbor, Mouton Rothschild.

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If French Bord hyperbole didn’t insult my intelligence so much, I’d probably buy a lot more.

And that’s not even counting Leve.