Bordeaux 2016 at Two Years: St Emilion Grand Cru Classé & Grand Cru
My comments pertaining to the St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé wines in the 2016 vintage can be extrapolated to this report, in which I look at many of the appellation’s other wines, all at the Grand Cru Classé and Grand Cru levels. Here too, the 2015 vintage was very successful, and as already noted many of the appellations petits châteaux made their best wines ever in that vintage. To hope for something better, or comparable, in the 2016 vintage, seemed like asking for too much. Nevertheless that is what we have in St Emilion. This appellation has enjoyed two brilliant back-to-back vintages in 2015 and 2016, and Bordeaux-minded drinkers should be able to buy with confidence.
That is not quite the same as saying one can buy ‘blind’ of course, especially with St Emilion’s track record. First, the styles of the two vintages are quite different; while both present expressive, dark and perfumed black fruits, in 2015 they comes wrapped in a plush and velvety texture, while in 2016 the wines are dense and sinewy without any of the fat seen in 2015, the overarching style one of taut definition instead. Both are great, but which you prefer will be heavily influenced by your own preferences, rather than the inherent quality in either vintage. Personally, I think 2016 will give greater drinking pleasure in time, but I find it hard to resist the textural eagerness of 2015 right now.
And secondly, in St Emilion we must also deal with the approach taken to harvest and in the cellars. Despite some critics proclaiming (or at least suggesting) that the age of the modern, over-ripe, over-extracted St Emilion is now behind us, on this matter I must demur. Château Pavie presents a fresher style than we saw ten or fifteen years ago, but this cannot necessarily be extrapolated across the entire appellation. There are a number of wines here with slightly fuzzy and ill-defined fruit profiles presumably reflecting a later harvest, and some where the palate has been laden with raw, extracted tannin, while one or two are smothered with the brown spice notes which reflect either picking decisions or perhaps the use of toasted new oak. These are wines I would avoid. Look beyond them, though, and there are plenty of good options for drinking here.
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