Bordeaux 2004 at Ten Years: Pomerol
Pomerol is an appellation I have come to understand much better over the last couple of years, principally achieved through spending more time in the commune. On almost every trip I make to Bordeaux there is some free time at one end or another, and I usually spend it exploring, discovering vineyards, getting the soles of my shoes caked in vineyard soil, taking some photographs to if I can. This is the reason I have been updating and expanding so many of my Pomerol profiles recently.
Through understanding the soils I have also come to understand the wines much better; I now have a much firmer grasp of what Pomerol is, and how a clay and gravel Pomerol from the heart of the plateau differs from the more peripheral wines, made from vines planted along the left bank of the Barbanne to the north, on the sandy plain to the west, or next to the suburbs, or the course of the Tailhas, to the south and southeast.
Of course, soils can only take you so far, and much of what I have learnt has been through tasting. There is, after all, no substitute for that. And I have been tasting more simply because I have been visiting more, spending more time in Bordeaux during the primeurs, and visiting at other times of the year as well, putting the focus onto bottled wines instead. All of which means I have a better idea of what to expect when it comes to a tasting such as this.
