Bordeaux 2008 Primeurs: Pomerol
As I have already expounded in my introduction to the wines of St Emilion in this vintage, my tastings of the two principal right bank appellations were jumbled up throughout what turned out to be a very long and busy day. Nevertheless, the Pomerol estates had no difficulty in making their mark on my palate, such was the quality. Fans of the estate will not be surprised that my visit to Le Pin yielded probably the most desirable and seductive wine of the appellation under the spotlight here, although as I have already mentioned elsewhere, and reiterated in my note below, the wine tasted was merely a representation of 2008 Le Pin, Jacques Thienpont using a pipette to draw a sample from just two barrels, with a little press wine then added in. The quality in what I tasted, though, was exceptional, but this is a good reminder of the tenuous link between some barrel samples and the finished wine.
The Pomerol story in this vintage is pretty like any other Bordeaux appellation this year, namely a damp summer saved by a warm September and October, with low yields for all the same reasons that reduced the harvest elsewhere, as I have explained in my introduction. Christian Moueix informed me that for Pomerol the average yield, across the whole appellation, was just 32 hl/ha, although naturally the final figure for the Moueix properties was a few hectolitres per hectare lower than this. There was an additional scare in this appellation, however, when a light film of botrytis appeared on the grapes in early October. A difficult year looked to be heading for ultimate disaster but an autumn frost seemed to kill the mould almost overnight, the fruit remained healthy, and the vintage continued.
