Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Médoc Tasting Notes
Beyond the relative success of Goulée, there is little to be said on the other wines of the Médoc appellation in 2013. These are light wines, with leaner textures through the middle, reflecting the rather cool nature of the vintage, and perhaps the early harvest. And, although greenness is not a strong feature of 2013, thanks to the sunshine during July and August which seems to have done a good job pushing down methoxypyrazine levels, some wines here do show a rather herbaceous, vegetal, leafy edge.
I’m not averse to a lick of methoxypyrazine in the wines of Bordeaux, or indeed the Loire. If not overpowering, and in combination with ripe fruit (right now I’m thinking of 2009 Château Giscours in particular, although there are many wines that would perhaps fit the bill), this is a feature of the Cabernet family of varieties that I quite enjoy. It is important to distinguish it from true herbaceousness, when the lack of ripening in the fruit is overpowering. Wines that taste vegetal, calling to mind celery, green capsicum and dried herbs are too much, but a gentle lick of mint, or a sprinkle of green peppercorn, that all seems good to me. If the technical ripeness (sugar concentration and consequent alcohol level) is good, and the phenolic ripeness (the nature of the tannins, silky and polished rather than green and grainy) is good, then a little methoxypyrazine (which relates to hours of sunshine and fruit exposure more than temperature) is just one more Cabernet complexity.
