Bordeaux 2007 at Ten Years: Pessac-Léognan
Never have I found myself at a tasting of ten-year old Bordeaux wishing that the wines were white, rather than red, but that was certainly the case as I approached the line up of wines from the Pessac-Léognan appellation in 2007. While this vintage was a very challenging one for red wines, the cool weather through the summer did no harm to the white wines at all. Such conditions help to preserve the acidity within the wine, lending them vigour, energy and vivacity. We saw something similar in the rather more recent 2014 vintage, which was also marked by cooler weather early on, but then saved by an Indian summer.
But it was to no avail. No matter how hard I stared at the wines, wishing them to change colour, they remained resolutely red. And in the end I was thankful for my lack of magical ability, as this appellation has faired quite well in 2007, producing a slew of decent and certainly drinkable wines, showing a little more composure and confidence than some of their counterparts from the various communes of the Médoc peninsula, and indeed here we find one of the top left-bank wines of the vintage.
The two wines from the Haut-Brion stable, the 2007 Château Haut-Brion and 2007 Château La Mission Haut-Brion stole the show here with ease, and for me it was the first of the two that came out on top, with a more convincing texture than most other wines, a more filled-out on the palate, more structured and framed, with very attractive macerated-fruit flavour profile. The second wine, the 2007 Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, is a pretty decent second wine as well, taking into account the vintage. The 2007 La Mission Haut-Brion showed very well though, with its trademark floral elements, perfumed, with a slightly more crisp red-fruit flavour profile. Both wines are hugely impressive bearing in mind the character of the vintage.
Please log in to continue reading: