Bordeaux 2015 at Two Years
While I may be a little late to the game (for reasons which I will explain later), I am delighted that I can now begin the publication of my report on 2015 Bordeaux at two years, my first examination of this vintage since my primeurs review of the barrel samples tasted back in April 2016.
Unlike some other recent vintages, 2015 has turned out to be a fascinating year for fans of Bordeaux. After the rather lacklustre 2011 and 2012 vintages (I am generalising and speaking mainly of the red wines, of course), followed by the dreadful washout that was 2013, everybody with an interest in Bordeaux – the winemakers, the courtiers, the négociants, the merchants, consumers and dare I say it even the critics – were desperately awaiting the arrival of a vintage we could all finally get excited about.
First, along came 2014, a year characterised by some rather dreary and drizzly mid-season weather and which was ultimately saved by six weeks of autumn sunshine. The wines, while attractive, are ultimately rather cool and a little lacking in substance. The notion of an Indian summer, grapes soaking up the September and October sunshine, undoubtedly has romantic appeal, but such conditions simply don’t ripen grapes with the same efficiency as properly hot weather in July or August. No matter, the Bordelais naturally talked up their wines, and to be fair at the primeurs they did show better than expected (although, as some had thought the vintage might be a re-run of 2013, they could hardly seem worse). Some who tasted the wines went overboard and raved about the vintage, but while some wines were undoubtedly very good I found many had rather delicate and crystalline fruit profiles, and at their worst some tasted like off-vintage co-operative Saumur (ouch!). It is a vintage that, with time, I suspect many will come to regard as having failed to live up to expectations, a critic’s euphemism for “I over-rated the wines”. It is a vintage to pigeon-hole alongside 2012, light and delightfully fresh, but a long way from the ‘real thing’. My report on 2014 Bordeaux done, I continued to bide my time, still waiting for the hoped-for vintage to come along.
Enter, stage left, 2015.
