Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: Pomerol
My first port of call in my exploration of Pomerol in the 2013 vintage was the Moueix offices, down on the quayside in Libourne. A few minutes after arriving I was seated at the end of one of their tables, tasting glass and laptop to hand, working my way through the usual line-up of Moueix wines; this means two or perhaps three wines from St Emilion, including Château Bélair-Monange of course, as well as a slightly larger number of wines from Pomerol, a range which tops out at Château Trotanoy these days, ever since Petrus withdrew to the tasting exclusion of its own rather salubrious new château a few years ago. Well, I write “the usual line-up” but unfortunately that isn’t quite true in this vintage. It has been as difficult a vintage in Pomerol as it has anywhere else, and some châteaux have fallen at the final hurdle, failing to bring in a harvest deemed to be of adequate quality.
I suppose the warning signs for Pomerol were in evidence a few months ago, starting with the news from Jacques Thienpont who announced that, with only three barrels certain of making the grade for his 2013 Le Pin – meaning he will be releasing hundreds rather than thousands of bottles in this vintage – he would not (unsurprisingly) be pouring from his meagre stock during the primeur tastings. There were rumours that his cousin Alexandre Thienpont at Vieux Château Certan was also shutting up shop during the primeurs, but I have a tendency to disbelieve rumours, and I visited and tasted here as normal. Nevertheless, these were the warning signs; in an appellation full of desirable, old-vine Merlot, which was hit hardest by the bad weather during spring, it was perhaps inevitable that the ravages of the 2013 growing season took their toll on some notable names in Pomerol. There are gaps in the Moueix line up this year as a result.
Please log in to continue reading: