Bordeaux 2014 Primeurs: St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé
Thinking back to my primeurs reports in recent years, the days as I work my way towards my annual St Emilion report have always filled me with a slightly uneasy sense of foreboding. It’s like a walking tour; it’s a joyful experience, the scenery is beautiful, the people you meet relaxed and friendly, and all is going well. But as the tour progresses that mountain in the distance looms ever closer, and you know ultimately there will come the day when you have to tackle it. It’s a great feeling once you reach the summit (because it’s all downhill from there….) but actually getting there in the first place can be a real test of endurance.
This feeling has been driven home this year by the tasting note count for this appellation, which has now risen to nearly eighty wines. That is more than St Estèphe, Pauillac and St Julien combined. With this in mind I realised it simply wasn’t sensible to continue cramming so much information and so many tasting notes into a single report. Not only would splitting my report spread out the work a little, it would also allow previously unsung domaines to shine. After all, after discussing the relative merits or otherwise of the top châteaux, the likes of Château Ausone, Château Cheval Blanc, Château Figeac and so on, it was rare that I would have the appetite for then turning the spotlight on the less famous châteaux as well. Splitting the report into two should help to shift the almost inevitable weighting away from solely the grander names of the appellation.
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