Bordeaux 2014 at Two Years: Sauternes & Barsac
As usual, before we wade into my Sauternes notes, I think we should take a quick look back at the vintage to remind ourselves of the conditions in the run up to the picking. This is worthwhile – and I will keep it very brief, I promise – because the weather that helps the quality of the red wines can hinder the quality of the sweet whites (and vice versa), especially when it comes to the conditions during the run up to harvest.
The cool summer of 2014 helped to preserve the acidity in the fruit as it hung from the vines, and this feature of the vintage remains tangible in all the wines – both white and red – on my most recent tastings. While high acidity is not something you would probably go looking for in high-flying red Bordeaux, it can of course be very welcome in sweet wines. After a cool summer that tended to engender a leaner acid-fresh style, the red grapes needed more hang time in warm, dry conditions to allow the acidities to fall, and for the grapes to develop a greater concentration (of sugar, and of ripe tannins). That long hang time is (to some extent) what they got.
Meanwhile the Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc in Sauternes and Barsac had different needs. The arrival of the Indian summer in Sauternes and Barsac was not a saving grace, but was a stumbling block. To make Sauternes you need botrytis, to encourage botrytis you need humid or even wet weather, as well as dry and breezy days to help the post-infection concentration along. The warm, dry, autumn days of 2014 actively inhibited the development of noble rot. The skins of the Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes were nicely thinned, but for many weeks they remained stubbornly clean and sanitary. There was some rain in mid-September, but Sauternes and Barsac largely missed out on it, and although there was limited picking it was a very sparse harvest. There were also some problems with acid rot. At the very end of the month there was a little rain, followed by more very limited picking in early October. Everybody began to despair.
