Bordeaux 2012 at Four Years: St Estèphe
In the 2012 vintage the St Estèphe appellation has been advantaged, principally by the presence of more clay in the vineyards I think. Despite the wet weather being prominent during spring, and around harvest time, this was not the sole factor in determining quality here. It is easy to blame poor quality on cool and wet weather, undoubtedly important in retarding development and ripening, but we should not overlook the fact that warm summer weather can also cause trouble, if it is sufficiently dry to cause vines to shut down photosynthesis. In addition, the wines of St Estèphe in the 2012 vintage tend to feature slightly higher percentages of Merlot than they have done in some other recent vintages, a reflection of the strength of this variety in 2012, and perhaps another reason why the wines have done well.
There is no doubt in my mind that the wines of St Estèphe are superior to those from the other left-bank communes in this vintage. This was evident at the primeurs, before I even realised there had been a summer drought and before I began to understand its impact on the quality of the wines. On this more recent encounter, the wines having now been in bottle for two years, this superiority remained very obvious indeed, the wines of St Estèphe a class apart from their cousins in Pauillac and beyond.
