Bordeaux 2010 Cru Bourgeois
We all remember the collective groan of disbelief when the Bordelais announced that they had in 2010 another ‘vintage of the century’ on their hands. We had seen it all already with 2009 (and 2005… and 2003… and 2000…), and the notion that we had a back-to-back dyad of truly great vintages, 2009 and 2010 together, seemed like too big a pill to swallow. Nevertheless for once the hyperbole was based in truth; it was evident at the primeur tastings, and a recent assessment of the wines at the annual Union des Grands Crus (UGC) tasting in London (notes to follow soon) confirmed my earlier findings. The 2010 vintage ranks along with recent all time greats, such as 2005 or perhaps – although I never tasted the wines in their youth – with 1982.
But the Bordelais knew this from the outset, and if you had any lingering doubts as to their level of confidence in the wines they had made, I suspect these were dispelled when you saw the release prices. Many châteaux set new records for their prix de sortie. In such a situation, what can the Bordeaux-hungry drinker on a budget do? Look abroad for alternatives, to California or South America, as suggested by Benjamin Lewin MW in a recent edition of The World of Fine Wine? It hardly seems like a sensible solution to me, as such plainly warmer climes are bound to give a fleshier and darker wine, lovely in their own right perhaps, but a poor substitute for the cool climate style we have in Bordeaux. Much more logical is to look to Bordeaux itself, beyond the cru classé estates, to the wines of the cru bourgeois and other ‘lesser’ châteaux.
