Bordeaux 2012 Primeurs: A Gravelly Lament
Let’s move away from the limestone plateau and slopes of St Emilion and head west now, to the more gravelly soils that abut the vineyards of Pomerol. Here lies Château Cheval Blanc, one of two – sorry, I mean four – class ‘A’ premier grand cru classé properties in the 2012 St Emilion classification. As I have already admitted in a previous page of this report on 2012 St Emilion, I actually visited this estate the day before most of my St Emilion visits, as it made sense to include it at the end of a day of tasting in Pomerol.
Château Cheval Blanc
An account of the growing season and harvest provided at Cheval Blanc gave little air-time to the difficulties of the early part of the season, but focused instead on the warm and dry summer weather, in particular the low level of rainfall in late-July, August and September. All the same, bud break here was slightly later than usual, followed by uneven growth in April, and disrupted flowering in May and June. The progress in the vineyard here was delayed as it was elsewhere; the onset of véraison was August 5th for Merlot and August 11th for Cabernet Franc, on a par with other estates in St Emilion despite our proximity to Pomerol here.
The heavy rainfall early in the year meant the vines were well watered, and the team at Cheval Blanc deny any hydric stress during the dry weather of August and September, despite the gravelly soils here, even though this was reported at a number of other estates across Bordeaux, especially those with this sort of terroir. This was despite the acknowledgement that the year was one of the driest in recent history, close to 2000 (there’s no holding back on comparisons with 2000). As the harvest approached it was clear that the fruit would not all ripen, and a significant green harvest was carried out. The picking began on September 27th for the Merlots, very soon after the rains, and on October 6th for the Cabernet Francs. It was complete by October 13th, long before the rains arrived.
