Bordeaux 2016: Broad Impressions
Over the next fifteen instalments of this guide to the 2016 Bordeaux primeurs I will pick my way through each of the main appellations and regions, as well as looking at those less famous names, everything from minor right-bank regions to ‘generic’ Bordeaux.
Of course I am not sure anybody can carry this level of detail around in their head. Having not long reviewed the 2014 vintage in bottle, and the 2012 vintage at four years of age, I know first-hand just how easy it is to get confused with how certain appellations performed in different vintages. The St Estèphe appellation, for example, over performed in 2012, was just as awful as everywhere else in 2013, over performed again in 2014 and then underperformed in 2015 (even as I write this I am getting confused again). In only one of those four vintages did this appellation follow the prevailing reputation of the vintage; in the other three, it bucked the trend, usually (but not always) for the better.
Generalisations are thus inherently flawed, nevertheless they can be useful. It is worthwhile knowing that 1996 was a left-bank year, 1998 a right-bank year, that 2005 was superb everywhere, and that 2013….well, you can fill in the rest of that sentence yourself. And so on with 2016….
