Bordeaux 2011 Primeurs: St Julien Tasting Notes
Having tasted my way through the wines of this commune (never a lengthy task – there are only eleven classed growths, after all) it seemed clear to me that in St Julien we have a number of good wines. So here this vintage is certainly not the broad disaster that some thought it would be, and indeed some are still asserting that it is. These are good wines, although one or two will require you to love their tannins in order to truly enjoy them. If you were happy supping down your 1986s at ten or fifteen years of age, when they still possessed bruising tannic backbones in many circumstances, then you could perhaps find renewed joy again in 2011 St Julien. If you enjoyed supping down your 1986s when they were five years old, though, there are still one or two tannin infusions here which will bring back happy memories for you. I think my introduction to the commune, and my notes below, make clear which is which.
Beyond those wines where the main talking point is tannin, however, are those that show a greater harmony and depth. These are the wines from the estates where the difficulties of the vintage have been understood, and appropriate adaptations made in terms of selection and extraction. They are the wines that transcend rather than directly translate the vintage. They can be found in a number of communes on the left bank, particularly Pauillac, but here in St Julien the concentration is just that little bit stronger I think. Pauillac undoubtedly offers greater highs (Pontet-Canet, Pichon-Baron) and similar quality is offered by the top two estates in St Estèphe (Montrose, Cos d’Estournel) but St Julien is perhaps the most consistent left-bank commune (not for the first time, it has to be said). The lows here are less notable than they are in the other two communes.
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