Bordeaux 2011 Primeurs: St Estèphe
If the story of 2011 already seems sufficiently dramatic – with reversed seasons, grape-scorching heat waves in June, vine-drenching downpours in August, all culminating in the Cabernets eventually dehydrating on the vine as they ripened – then spare a thought for the men and women of the St Estèphe appellation. They endured just as much as any of their left-bank peers this year, plus just that little bit more. Although many communes experienced a little hail during 2011, the most devastating was surely that which was visited upon the vineyards along the southern stretch of the St Estèphe appellation, on the evening of September 1st 2011. The hailstorm cut a path across the vineyards taking out a number of notable vineyards, its most significant victim being Cos d’Estournel, although all of its neighbours suffered to some extent. Vines belonging to Basile Tesseron of Lafon-Rochet, just a short distance along the D2 from Cos d’Estournel were also affected, as were the vineyards of Cos Labory which are contiguous with those of the other Cos. Moving down towards the Gironde, smaller and certainly less significant areas of the Montrose, Haut-Marbuzet and Phélan-Ségur vineyards were hit. To the north a little, Calon-Ségur was spared. Of note the St Estèphe vines belonging to Lafite-Rothschild, which normally feed into the grand vin (the Rothschilds have special permission to do so) were also hit.
Cos d’Estournel
Hail can be a very destructive force of nature, wiping out an entire harvest – an entire year’s income – in a matter of minutes. We have a very good example from the right bank, if we look back to the 2009 vintage, in Château Trottevielle, when the harvest here – and at a number of neighbours of lower classification – were dramatically reduced, the entire domaine managing just 60 hectolitres, at least an 80% loss if my rough-and-ready calculations are even remotely correct. The hail at Cos d’Estournel in 2011 was of the same force, and photographs and reports from the scene within a few days of the devastation were shocking, showing the vines stripped of their leaves. There is no doubt that the fruit was also damaged, bringing the obvious threat of rot, as all the moulds and spores lingering around the vines enjoy nothing more than a little warm, moist, freshly exposed and sugar-rich grape flesh to get their teeth into.
