Bordeaux 2008 at Two Years: Pessac-Léognan
The vines of Pessac-Léognan were some of the most badly affected by the spring frosts of 2008, and so yields here in this vintage were in some cases very low (at least for Bordeaux) with figures of 30 and 40 hl/ha for whites and reds respectively not unusual. As was the case elsewhere in Bordeaux the red vines benefitted from the Indian summer, but this was not the case for the earlier-picked white varieties which as always were tucked away in the chai weeks before the Cabernets and Merlots were harvested, thus missing out on much of the good weather from which the reds benefitted so much. At the primeur tastings I found the style of the whites to largely be quite solid and substantial, whereas there was a broader range of styles in the reds, starting with fresh and lively, moving to a more structured character, with a handful seeming more lush and heavily worked in the cellar.
Dealing with the white wines first, these are good although I feel they are not up to the same standard as the delicious wines I discovered in the 2006 vintage. The wines have substance, in a similar fashion to 2006, with moderate acidity in most cases, making for competent wines which although enjoyable in the right setting are unlikely to offer the punchy thrill that can be found with the 2006s. They do seem superior, across the board, to the wines of 2007. And so, in light of the difficulties of the vintage, these wines are good efforts. Two wines that particularly deserve some mention are those from Pape-Clément and Domaine de Chevalier, both very worthy, but there are others which have also held onto the promise at which they hinted during the primeurs. One or two wines, however, such as La Louvière and de Fieuzal, did not seem to come through, on this assessment at least.
