Bordeaux 2015 Primeurs: St Julien
It is here, from St Julien northwards through Pauillac and St Estèphe, and onto the vineyards of the Médoc appellation, that some of the difficulties in 2015 – the ‘great vintage’, according to some – become apparent.
Let me explain in more detail my feelings on this vintage. Looking first at the two extremes of quality on the left bank of the Gironde and Garonne, on one hand we have the wines from the most southerly vineyards, namely Pessac-Léognan and Graves, and on the other we have those from the most northerly vineyards of the Médoc. It is clear to me that these two regions have experienced very different vintages, or at least two very different Septembers; it was warm and dry around Pessac and Léognan (where there was about 30 mm of rain), but wet and miserable around Lesparre-Médoc (where the recorded rainfall was more like 120 mm).
It would be naive to believe that all the famous communes of the left bank, Margaux, St Julien, Pauillac and St Estèphe, enjoyed the same fine conditions as Pessac-Léognan, and that the September rain fell only on the poor winemakers of the Médoc, the clouds hanging over their beret-clad heads like a bad mood, while everybody in St Estèphe and further south was slipping into their ‘budgie-smugglers’ and applying liberal quantities of sun cream. There is no doubt that some of these famous appellations received, like the northern Médoc, a liberal dousing in September.
