Bordeaux 2011 Primeurs: Sauternes & Barsac Tasting Notes
Whereas in my other Bordeaux 2011 reports I have chosen to highlight a handful of wines that offer good quality, or good value perhaps (depending on release prices) here I do wonder if my approach shouldn’t be somewhat different. I say this because, in this most stunning of vintages, we have here a very safe buying opportunity.
The quality across the board here is extraordinarily high. I find the wines to be very strong for two very basic reasons. First up, this is a botrytis-rich vintage; time has taught me that it is impossible to pick up botrytis in primeur samples by looking for the traditional aromatic profile. This is because those buzzwords that might signify botrytis – oranges, apricots, complex nut and praline elements and the sweeter, richer tones of caramel – only come with time. Young Sauternes is all about primary fruit and perhaps floral aromas, none of which say very much about botrytis. It is only by (a) understanding the vintage, and (b) looking within the texture and substance of the wine, can we find evidence of the noble rot that increases the quality and worth of the wine and the vintage. It is another example of primeur-sample aromatics being less important than characteristics on the palate. Despite this, I know (thanks to an informal and light-hearted survey carried out during the primeurs week by Richard Bampfield MW) many primeurs tasters are looking for the traditional elements that indicate aged-wine botrytis, rather than young-wine botrytis.
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