Bordeaux 2007 at Ten Years: Pauillac
After looking at 2007 St Estèphe and being taken by surprise, the wines of Pauillac brought me back to the reality of the vintage. While the wines of St Estèphe seemed impressive (for 2007, anyway), their aromas, flavours and structures suggesting a less troubled growing season, here in Pauillac many of the wines seemed more reflective of the difficulties of the vintage.
While many of the wines here demonstrated charming and evolving fruit profiles, with scents of blackcurrant, black olive, currants and the occasional truffle, in a significant number of wines these aromas and flavours are laced with the greener scents of the vintage. The vintage is rich in methoxypyrazine, lending a green and herbaceous streak to the wines, coming across as sage, thyme and other herbs, mint, spearmint and pine needle. When these characteristics add low-level complexity to otherwise ripe wines, as they do in many vintages (there are wines even from super-ripe vintages such as 2009 with green streaks like these), they can be defining features, adding interest and pleasure. When they stand out, and define the wine, as they do here, they are not always so welcome.
It may be that these greener elements stand out in these wines not solely due to the methoxypyrazine levels, but because these elements are framed by the lighter and leaner style of wine, this not being a vintage rich in super-ripe substance, and by the acidities, which feel quite dominant on the palate of some wines. The archetypal palate in the 2007 vintage seems to be leaner, lighter and greener but with interesting flavours and a touch of charm, and many of the wines of Pauillac seem to have been moulded according to this prototype.
