Bordeaux 2014 Primeurs: Château L’Évangile
I think of all the grand châteaux (and also the less grand châteaux) of Pomerol it was Château L’Évangile that I came to last. I had viewed it from the front steps of Château Cheval Blanc more than once or twice, and driven passed it many times, on my way to Château La Conseillante or some other nearby château. These days, of course, I wouldn’t dare not visit, not merely because of a desire to be as comprehensive as possible in these reports, but because more often than not the wine here is of very good quality. This feeling was hammered home last year when tasting the 2013 primeurs, a very troubled vintage (the worst in thirty years) in which L’Évangile still seemed to pull the rabbit out of the hat. The wine tasted as if it came from another, much more convincing growing season, such was its poise and conviction.
This year I tasted with Jean-Pascal Vazart (pictured), and we chatted about the vintage while I mulled over his newest barrel sample. “The flowering was not a problem, there was high humidity afterwards, which isn’t a problem, whereas during 2013 there was higher humidity during the flowering, which was much more of an issue. There was a lot of rain in July, and the humidity levels were suddenly very high. It was a difficult summer but despite this we didn’t have any significant problems with the health of grapes. After August 20th though the weather was fine. The véraison was very homogenous for the Cabernet Franc, but this wasn’t the case with the Merlots. These were much more heterogeneous, the véraison beginning slowly, but then coming to a halt, before then taking off again later. So ripening was very heterogeneous too, and there was a requirement for some strict sorting”. This seems to be the story of 2014; whether we are talking about flowering, the véraison, the homogeneity or otherwise of the ripening process and the ability to take advantage of the Indian summer, it always seems to be the Merlots that have taken the hardest hit.
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