Château de la Rivière: Tasting & Drinking
I once had a wine-knowledgeable friend, with a skilled palate and a particular propensity for the wines of Bordeaux, who asserted that some vintages of Château de la Rivière were, when tasted blind, very difficult to distinguish from the Médoc first growths. I am certain that Jacques Borie – it was surely the wines of the Borie era to which he was referring – would have been delighted to learn of such a conclusion. I have not tasted these older vintages, although I found my friend’s assertion difficult to square with my own experiences, despite the respect with which I held his palate; I doubt I would confuse the wines of this estate with those of Château Latour, Château Lafite-Rothschild or the like.
Indeed, although I can think of a couple of mid-1990s vintages I have enjoyed, during the very early years of the 21st century I found a number of the wines to be distinctly disappointing. Things had clearly gone off the boil here at La Rivière; perhaps, with the untimely death of its then-proprietor, that is to be expected?
My opinion seems to have been confirmed on tasting at the château in 2012, when the wines of the 2005 and 2006 vintages continued in the same disappointing style, displaying rather lean, old-fashioned, gamey and rustic characteristics. But then came the saviour; returning to the estate in 2007, Xavier Buffo made sweeping changes in vineyard management and in the cellars, to the benefit of the wine. The 2007 showed the difficulties of the vintage rather than any discernible result of the changes instituted by Buffo, worse luck for him. Nevertheless, with the 2008 vintage, the leap in quality was clearly evident. The wine was flavoursome, rather restrained in texture, fresh and brightly defined.
