Bordeaux 2007 at Four Years: Pessac-Léognan
The 2007 vintage in Bordeaux was one that favoured the white wines over the red. Of course, there are few white wines produced in the region, at the classed growth level at least, and it is only to Graves and of course its sweeter counterparts Sauternes and Barsac that we can turn to find these wines. Unfortunately the annual Institute of Masters of Wine Bordeaux tasting has always focused on the red wines, not the white, and so the very successful dry white wines of Pessac-Léognan – wines that you could argue were the most successful dry wines of the vintage – were not on show today.
Happily, there is a sweetener though. And it really is a sweetener, as although the IMW tasting has never before featured Sauternes, this year for the first time it did, and so a handful of fabulous sweet wines joined the line up, in most cases kicking dust into the faces of their redder companions. I will provide more details on the first ever appearance of Sauternes at the annual IMW tasting in my future update on 2007 Sauternes and Barsac. For now, though, it is time to take a look at the red wines, starting with Pessac-Léognan.
The Story so Far
At the primeur tastings in April 2008 one proprietor of a Pessac-Léognan château confessed to me quite candidly that 2007 was a petit millésime. But even at those very first tastings it was clear that this dismissive statement applied to the reds, and not to the whites. The cool weather had engendered freshness and bright character in the white wines, but these climatic conditions favoured the red wines much less. As a consequence, my early impressions were that these wines were petit vins, wines that are lighter and will drink early. I did not develop the impression, on tasting these wines, that they would be good buys during the en primeur season, and on reflection that statement was correct, although it was hardly a tough call; the vintage continued the current trend of high release prices for the latest Bordeaux vintage, and the prices were way out of kilter with the quality I tasted.
