Bordeaux 2006 at Ten Years: St Estèphe
As I described in my introduction to this review of 2006 Bordeaux at ten years of age, at a very superficial level we could draw some similarities between the 2006 and the 2015 vintages, the latter at the time of writing just making its way onto the market for the first time following recent primeur tastings. Both seemed really promising at first, hopes of another truly great vintage having been raised by warm and dry weather through May, June and July. And in both cases these hopes fade through August and September, when there was a dip in temperatures and it rained.
Of course, such similarities only hold true if we continue to merely scrape the surface of each vintage. In 2015 the August and September rains were so heavy in St Estèphe that they had a really significant effect on quality; not only is St Estèphe the least convincing Médoc commune in 2015, this is the only commune where the wines of 2014 were consistently better than those of 2015. Back in 2006, however, the St Estèphe appellation was not so disadvantaged. After the rains of August there came some more favourable weather, helping to dry out the vineyards. And although there was some rain in September, it was nothing like the drenching of more than 100 mm of rainfall seen in 2015.
Continuing on this theme of vintage comparisons, not only is 2014 probably superior to 2015 in St Estèphe (I would have to reassess the wines in bottle before I say anything definitive), but I suspect many other recent vintages will be able to join 2014 in this achievement. Including, as it happens, 2006. This is of course a generalisation, based on a very small sample of just five wines (as usual, my St Estèphe report is the smallest in this tasting review), and of these one clearly hasn’t read the script. Nevertheless my point stands; there is value in backfilling from a vintage such as 2006 when the wines are of this quality, and the prices remain within your reach.
