Bordeaux 2011 at Four Years
Some Bordeaux vintages are easy to pigeon-hole, and the character of the vintage remains forever lodged in the wine-related corner of our memories (a very cluttered corner for many of us, I am sure). Who isn’t sure, for example, whether 2009 and 2010 are great vintages? Although I know of one or two naysayers with regard to the quality of one or the other, I’m with the majority in that I see both vintages as great, even if they sit at polar ends of the style spectrum, one luscious and seductive, the other overtly structured with tannin and acidity.
In a similar vein, is there anyone who doubts that the 2013 vintage was a washout for the Bordelais? Every wine has to be viewed independently, of course, and some domaines did better than others, but on the whole I think we are probably all going to be able to reach a consensus on the quality of the vintage here. After all, even some in Bordeaux, such as Denis Dubourdieu (pictured), muttered at the time that this was the worst vintage in thirty years.
With this in mind, in which pigeonhole do you file a vintage such as 2011 Bordeaux? It was an incredibly warm year, indeed the warmest ever since French météo records began. Unlike 2003 (the second warmest), though, in 2011 the average temperature for the year was high because of a warm spring and a long, warm autumn, rather than a summer heatwave. In fact, the summer was wetter and cooler than average. So, despite the early harvest, the wines of 2011 have never shown the big, blowsy, over-ripe and caramelised character that marks a great number of wines in 2003 (although there are plenty with an appealing edge of roasted or grilled fruit to their flavour profiles). So, I wonder, should we be filing the 2011 vintage somewhere within our mental list of ‘good’ vintages, some way behind 2009 and 2010?
