Bordeaux 2011 at Four Years: St Emilion
Moving on from the left bank appellations of the Médoc, and Pessac-Léognan, we come now to St Emilion. A complex appellation with a great variety of terroirs, we can expect considerable diversity of style and quality here. Of course, this is always the case in this appellation, where the approach to harvest and to winemaking also has a profound influence on the character of the wines.
It is perhaps this diversity of approach that means, in 2011, this appellation is not streets ahead of its peers. The combination of the limestone and clay soils with the earlier-ripening tendency of Merlot, the latter meaning the grapes did not have to bake in the autumn sunshine for as long as Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, should have conferred an advantage in this vintage. And yet the appellation as a whole seems as variable as ever, perhaps even more so.
As I stated in my introduction though, this is not a vintage to be pigeonholed as either great or awful. The wines each need independent assessment, and nowhere is this more true than in St Emilion. The very best wines are on a par with the greatest names of the left bank, so in some parts the theoretical advantage does seem to have been transmitted through to the finished wines. Some very famous châteaux have not performed at this level though, the wines showing extraction, warmth and alcohol rather than the freshness and purity they need to balance out their rich, roasted-fruit flavours. It’s the age-old St Emilion problem.
