Bordeaux 2013 at Two Years: St Estèphe
I kick off my Bordeaux 2013 reports with a look at St Estèphe. Despite the hopes expressed in my introduction, there is no superstar lurking here, no insider’s wine that belies the vintage printed on the label. It seems to me that the wet weather and the prolonged flowering that resulted, the coulure and millerandage (reported on the Merlots more than the Cabernets) and the generally late season, complicated by a wet harvest and the rapid attack of not-so-noble rot all took their toll on the wines here.
Most of the wines from St Estèphe showed as I expected from my impressions during the primeur tastings, although the conviction displayed by the most impressive primeurs barrel sample – which was undoubtedly Château Montrose – sadly hasn’t really translated through into an equally convincing wine. That isn’t a criticism, as the wine tasted after bottling shows much more how I would expect, and is comparable with its peers. It was just that the primeurs sample seemed head-and-shoulders above everyone else in the appellation. Of note, I found a similar decline in score with Château Tronquoy-Lalande, which is of course also owned by the Bouygues brothers and is under the same management.
As for the wines of Château Calon-Ségur, these were certainly consistent with previous encounters. Perhaps the most notable feature of these wines is that I ended up scoring both grand vin and deuxième vin at the same level, which I suspect will at first glance seem fairly unusual, but let me explain. I suspect this is down to the assemblage; the grand vin is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon (at 92% in this vintage), which was worst hit by the deteriorating weather during the harvest, while the second wine, Marquis de Calon, is (as is always the case if I am not mistaken) dominated by Merlot (60% in this vintage).
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