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Bordeaux 2010: Pessac-Léognan

It is the summer of 2005, and I'm in Provence. I'm based some way west of Nice, but still well over an hour from the little Provençal town of Bandol; in fact even taking the rather quiet and fast-moving autoroute that runs along France's Mediterranean coast it is still more like two hours than one. Nevertheless I have no doubt that the trip is worth it; there are no wines in this region better than those made from the vines planted on the craggy, semi-forested hillsides that sit behind the little town of Bandol.

One of my appointments is at Pibarnon, where I spend some time with one of the cellar-hands, learning a little bit about recent vintages, and tasting the wines. I also learn a little French along the way, which was a surprise as this particular cellar rat was Australian. All the same, living and working in France he clearly knew more of the language than I did. Having completed my lesson on the difference between toi and vous I taste the estate's 2003. It has a very rich and warm black cherry character, with a sweet confit note to the fruit. Not enough to call jammy, and the wine is balanced on the palate, with good acidity, an indication of how well Mourvèdre is suited to Mediterranean climes. But there is a certain intense sweetness to it that calls to mind concentrated fruit essence rather than a pure, bright fruit freshness. It is a good wine, but both aromatically and in terms of the flavour profile on the palate it betrays the warmth of the vintage quite notably.

Now it is April 2011 and I am in Bordeaux, tasting the red wines of Pessac-Léognan from the 2010 vintage, and I am reminded of this little snippet of my life, nearly six years distant. In this particular region of Bordeaux - although not in too many others, note - the fruit in many wines from 2010 has that same confit character. Note, however, that I am not saying these are poor wines; the confit elements are not that overt, they are not jammy or unbalanced, and the tannins and acidity bring a good grip and freshness to the wines, just as they did with that 2003 Bandol. But the style is, for me, undeniable. And so, regardless of any score that I or anyone else might award these wines, it is vital as always to read the notes. If you abhor the idea of confit fruit in Bordeaux, then a number of the wines below will be well worth avoiding.

Pessac-Léognan 2010: The Red Wines

The appellation leader here is clearly Château Haut-Brion with its regal counterpart, La Mission de Haut-Brion, both of which are in the ownership of Prince Robert of Luxembourg (pictured below), the winemaking falling to Jean-Philippe Delmas. And in this most unusual of vintages Delmas has fashioned a set of most distinctive wines. Following on from the points about Merlot and alcohol in 2010 which I made in my vintage review, 2010 La Mission has a record high for Cabernet Sauvignon, as this variety constitutes 62% of the blend, the Merlot having been reduced to just 37%. The highest figure I have in my notes on previous vintages is 52% Cabernet Sauvignon (in another warm year, 2003) with 35-47% fairly typical figures. And yet, even with this strict selection, La Mission de Haut-Brion still registers a remarkable 15.1% alcohol (it was 14.7% in 2009). Both grand vins are record breakers for alcohol, as Haut-Brion has 14.6%, in this vintage (the 2009 was 14.3% in second place, 2005 third with 14%).

On tasting, first without and then with the knowledge of the above data, these wines do not display any heat on the palate....which is, looking at the numbers presented above, remarkable. All the same, stylistically these are the biggest and boldest examples of these two wines that I can ever recall tasting, and although there is no discernible burn from the alcohol - even in La Mission - the demanding substances of these wines, their textures perhaps bolstered by the alcohol, clearly reflect the warmth of the vintage. How do they manage to remain fresh with this constitution? The answer is in the acidities which are lower, with pH 3.6 in Haut-Brion (it was 3.9 in 2009) and pH 3.7 in La Mission (again it was higher in 2009). These alcohol and acidity data also reflect, to some extent, the warmer microclimate very near Bordeaux that these properties enjoy, as well as vineyard practises. When asked whether they wish they had worked for a fresher and more elegant style in this vintage, Delmas and his vineyard manager declared that they were happy treading the path between concentration on one hand, and elegance on the other. For some, though, I suspect these wines will be too concentrated. I liked them; they certainly do not have the rather forced feel of some ambitious left bank wines from further north up the Médoc. I note, though, that in my top ten round-up I rated the more pure and ethereal wines from Margaux and Ausone higher.

Beyond this minor criticism there are plenty of very likeable wines in this region in the 2010 vintage. The two darlings of the appellation, after the Haut-Brion properties, are Haut-Bailly and Domaine de Chevalier; both have put in fine performances in 2010. The 2010 Haut-Bailly was harvested with a yield of 37 hl/ha, lower figures such as this being the norm across Bordeaux as the berries were dehydrated by the very dry weather during the weeks running up to the picking. (14/4/11)