Bordeaux 2013 Primeurs: St Emilion
During my tastings of the 2013 Bordeaux vintage I spent two days on the right bank, soaking up the wines of St Emilion and Pomerol. On top of that, I had already tasted quite a broad selection of wines the preceding weekend, at the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux (this is the new catch-all term for the organisation, now that Le Cercle Rive Droite has been joined by Le Cercle Rive Gauche) and La Grappe tastings, the latter being a showcase for the wines made with the assistance of Stéphane Derenoncourt. As such I had a fairly broad exposure to the wines of both appellations, as well as the likes of Castillon, Fronsac and the St Emilion and Pomerol satellites.
I will look here in as pure a fashion as possible at St Emilion, and deal with all these other appellations in subsequent instalments, nevertheless there is inevitably some cross-over between these many wine regions, in terms of terroir and dominant grape variety at the very least. Some of my thoughts about how the vintage has faired on the right bank are based as much on my tastings in Pomerol as in St Emilion, and there are one or two points of generalisation which can be applied. Before I move on to take a look at some of the more notable wines of this appellation, followed by Pomerol in the next instalment, I want to consider one or two of these right-bank ‘generalisations’.
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