Bordeaux 2010 at Two Years: St Estèphe
Looking back at my report on 2010 St Estèphe written shortly after returning from the primeurs tastings in 2012 I unsurprisingly focused on the two top estates, Château Cos d’Estournel and Château Montrose. Unfortunately neither are represented here, a shame as both wines were interesting in the context of the vintage. Montrose seemed to buck the trend, turning out a very seductive and approachable wine despite including 37% Merlot in the final blend, with a rather restrained 13.8% alcohol. Cos d’Estournel, meanwhile, was all we should expect; despite a reduction in Merlot’s contribution to the blend, the IPT was a blistering 91 and the alcohol a remarkable 14.5%. These figures are exceptional and typify the vintage, although they don’t beat the numbers seen at Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, the latter registering 15.1% alcohol, as I have already described in my Pessac-Léognan 2010 report.
I will return to Montrose and Cos d’Estournel in the future (I hope), but for this review at two years of age it is the more accessible and affordable wines that I am looking at. Overall the performance here was very good, and perhaps this is what we should expect. After all, this was a vintage where the vines of Bordeaux soldiered on through drought, helped along the way by significant rainfall only in March and June. Where on the left bank would you find better water-retaining soils than here in St Estèphe, where the customary gravels of the Médoc communes interdigitate and swirl with ancient clays?
