Bordeaux 2012 Primeurs: Médoc
I complete my more detailed examination of the ‘lesser’ appellations of the left bank with the Médoc. Unlike the Haut-Médoc appellation, which is long and convoluted, the concept of the Médoc is rather easier to grasp. Almost everything on the isthmus north of the drainage ditch that runs just above St Estèphe is Médoc, the only notable exception being a pocket of gravelly soils classified as Haut-Médoc, tucked in the corner between the drainage ditch to the south, and the Gironde to the east, around the town of Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne. This is where the insiders’ favourite Château Sociando-Mallet (well, it used to be an insider’s wine) can be found.
This far north the climate is a little cooler, and as a general rule ripening runs several days behind ripening in the great communes to the south, and lags even further behind progress in Pessac-Léognan, to the south of Bordeaux. This is a distinct disadvantage in a vintage such as 2012, when the race to ripen the fruit before the rains arrived was what defined the harvest. Nevertheless, there are potential advantages to having your vines rooted here. First, we have left behind the gravelly soils, and here the vineyards are planted on richer, more moisture-retentive clay. This may have been beneficial during the drought, when vines planted on more gravelly soils to the south (as described by Frédéric Soual of Château du Retout in my Haut-Médoc report) shut down photosynthesis after pore closure was necessary to conserve water. Secondly, in keeping with the increased presence of clay here, there are greater plantings of Merlot, an earlier ripening variety. It is the more Merlot-rich wines that offer the most convincing midpalate in this vintage, and so a region that focuses more on Merlot will be – as we have seen with Pomerol and St Emilion in this vintage – at an advantage.
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