Bordeaux 2015: Broad Impressions
The Rule of Five has been honoured, proclaimed some as they returned from tasting the wines at the Bordeaux primeurs. Indeed, I think some critics made the proclamation before going to the primeurs to taste the wines, which seems brave. Or stupid. Or maybe both.
The idea that vintages ending with a ‘5’ tend to be of fine quality is of course nonsense, as global weather patterns really have no concept of human years, nevertheless there are any number of examples that seem to support the claim. The most obvious candidate is 2005 of course, while I have long been a fan of the rather elegantly poised wines of the 1985 vintage, and I am sure if I ever got to taste many 1945s I would probably fall in love with that vintage too. Having said that, 1995 was good but more so on the right bank than the left, and I can’t say I have really been impressed with those wines from 1975 I have tasted.
Even so, if we ignore these imperfections, does 2015 fall into line. Does the Rule of Five hold? The answer to this seems to be yes, because there are plenty of good wines waiting to be discovered in the 2015 vintage, but to be honest I think it is rather a low bar with 1995 and 1975 also in the gang. Accepting that, is the vintage so strong as to be considered another great vintage, akin not just to these other ‘5’ vintages, but more like truly outstanding vintages such as 2010, 2009, 1990, 1982 or 1961?
