Bordeaux 2001
Following the great success of the 2000 vintage, was there ever any hope for 2001? Of course there was; although the 2000 vintage produced some superb red wines, the other styles associated with the region – the sweet and dry whites – were perhaps less favoured. In 2001, although the conditions did not favour the red wines so much, they were much better for Sauternes and Barsac, and the cellarmasters were able to produce some of the most fabulous sweet white wines of all recent Bordeaux vintages.
Vintage Review
Much of the tension of any vintage comes at the end, as the fruit ripens on the vine; vignerons watch the sky looking for signs of rain. In 2001, however, old hands were already twitchy in February. Uncommonly warm weather, the result of a high-pressure system that had travelled from the Azores, had the sap rising, potential buds swelling, and some vines even pushing out a leaf or two, all in early February. Pruning was impossible under these conditions, and any frost now would be an unprecedented disaster. The same situation in 1956, when warm weather was followed by an intense freeze, had killed huge swathes of vines in the region. It had been an unmitigated disaster, and in the years that followed the region saw extensive replanting as the vineyards recovered. Fortunately, forty-five years later, the weather took a different turn, and this year there was no such tragedy. The latter weeks of February saw the weather cool, the threat of budburst subsided, the vines having decided to wait instead for warmer weather; the buds eventually broke out in March.
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