Bordeaux 2017 at Two Years: Margaux
Having started out in St Julien on a cold, foggy and frosty morning, by the time I had arrived at Château Margaux shortly after lunch it was bright and clear, and much less bitter. It did not just feel like a different day, but a different season. The Bordelais continued to go about their daily business wrapped in giant quilted jackets with tog values exceeding that of even the heaviest duvets, as well as thick woollen scarfs, hats of various design, gloves, snow boots and no doubt a hot water bottle or two secreted about their person. Meanwhile I had already divested myself of my pullover, so now I rolled up my short sleeves, and wondered whether I should consider slapping on a little sunblock. This is what fifteen years living in Scotland does to you.
Mild winter weather, as I already discussed in the introduction to my recent 2017 Pauillac report, is one factor which places Bordeaux’s vineyards at greater risk of frost. Another factor we all face is more erratic weather. As the climate warms the temperature difference between the poles and the equator is reduced, and the polar jet stream, which runs between these two temperature zones, weakens. Consequently its course may wander, and if it drifts southwards it drags with it an unseasonably cold air mass, an event last seen in Europe in 2018 (nicknamed by UK mainstream media – rather inaccurately I thought – The Beast from the East). What are the odds we will see this again, perhaps touching the vineyards of the Loire Valley or Bordeaux, before this new decade is out? Very high, I suspect.
