Bordeaux 2008 at Two Years
A question often asked of any keen wine drinker is “so what’s your favourite bottle?“, to which the only sensible answer I have been able to devise is “the next one I open“. On reflection I realise I feel the same way about tastings. Travelling down from Edinburgh to London for the 2008 Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting in October 2010 I found myself relishing the prospect of sampling such a broad selection of wines from the vintage, thinking to myself “this should be a fascinating tasting”. But then I remember having the same thought before the 2007 tasting; after all, what would be more intriguing than a chance to assess the wines from what was probably the most difficult vintage for Bordeaux since the early 1990s, even if the wines were not the easiest to taste? And it was the same for 2006; who wouldn’t want to see if we didn’t have another 1983 on our hands, a year yielding some great wines hidden in the shadow cast by the towering stature of the preceding vintage? And looking beyond the 2005 tasting in late 2007, which saw the Paul Hamlyn Hall (previously the Floral Hall, renamed that year) at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden heaving with tasters eager to get their mouths around the wines of a great vintage, I was just as keen to review the ‘lesser’ wines of 2004. And why not? Although not a vintage that lays any claim to greatness, this was still a fascinating look at what is regarded by many as the region’s last affordable vintage (although personally I think 2002 fits that description rather better). I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point; roll on the 2008 vintage!
Having come clean about my preordained eagerness to retaste the wines of 2008, I will also confess that this is a vintage which I regard as rather significant on a personal level. It was not the first time I had been out to Bordeaux to review the wines during the primeur tastings, but somehow the whole process of early review seemed much more relevant than it had done with my first visit to taste the wines at this stage, the preceding year. Although the Bordelais had done their best with 2007 it seemed immediately clear to me that the vintage, although snatched from the jaws of defeat, had not yielded more than a handful of wines of any note. And as the Bordelais no doubt intended to continue their strategy of greatly elevated prices there was likely (and I was subsequently proved right I feel) to be a huge divide between the quality of the red wines (the dry and sweet whites – so often overlooked by even dedicated Bordeaux commentators – were considerably better) and the various prix des sorties, and the best advice anyone could offer after these tastings was a sweeping “don’t buy”, certainly as far as en primeur purchases were concerned. Bide your time, and buy at leisure once in bottle; that is all any sensible review of the 2007 vintage needed to say.
