Bordeaux 2011 at Two Years: Vintage Soundbites
Looking back to my en primeur report, and my six-page introduction to the Bordeaux 2011 vintage, I see even then I came to the conclusion that this was a very complex vintage, one that defied description in a simple soundbite. The vagaries of the weather during the 2011 growing season were mirrored in the variability seen in the wines. This was a year that saw both periods of drought and also heavy rain; sometimes there was excessively cold weather, and sometimes it was unusually hot, all wrapped up within a single vintage. No-one was going to apply the Vintage of the Century moniker to such a growing season. No-one with any sense of sanity, anyway.
The 2011 growing season was one like no other, one where the seasons were reversed, as spring replaced summer and vice versa. It was a curious vintage that saw an early harvest and yet, ultimately, it did not give us any wines in the hot-vintage, early-harvest style (think Bordeaux 2003 for the ultimate in early-harvest styles). It was a vintage where we would have expected the Merlots to fare better than the Cabernets, which is what we see in parts, but ultimately it was probably the terroir, as well as the actions of the men and women in charge, and not solely the variety in question, that made the difference.
Let us recap the vintage, in briefer form that my original, detail-rich en primeur report.
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