Bordeaux 2010 Primeurs: Pauillac
Have you ever found yourself in a minority? A situation where your voice and opinion doesn’t seem to resonate with those of your peers? Where you seem to be swimming against the tide of opinion, your friends and colleagues enthusiastic and positive, whereas you wonder to yourself what all the fuss might be about?
These are the thoughts that circled around my head during the primeurs week, as we left out final Pauillac appointment before we made our way over to the UGC tasting. The barrel sample we had been poured had been a massive wine, richer in Merlot than most, brimming with tannin, and not displaying some of the exquisite finesse other Pauillac cuvées had shown. I felt uneasy about it; it reminded me somewhat of the 2008, a wine which I tasted twice as a barrel sample and which seemed fine on those two occasions, and yet once in bottle it tasted like a disjointed, alcohol-rich tannin liqueur. Had I been habitually over-rating this wine, I wondered? Did it deserve the plaudits it had received? With regard to the 2010 just tasted, all my peers certainly seemed to think so.
