Bordeaux 2018 Primeurs: Sauternes & Barsac
In my penultimate Bordeaux 2018 report I turn my attention to the sweet wines. In practice this means the wines of Sauternes and Barsac, although I am pleased to be able to include one wine from Cérons, the long-forgotten sweet wine appellation which sits just to the north of Barsac.
Making botrytised sweet wines requires very different conditions to those that suit the red wines, as botrytis needs humidity from rain or mists to encourage the growth of the mould, followed by warm and preferably breezy weather to dehydrate the nobly rotten berries and thus concentrate the juices within. Rain was of course in short supply during the latter half of the 2018 growing season, which was warm and dry from July right through to October, so at first glance the 2018 growing season would appear not to favour the sweet wine regions. Before we get to these final stages though, let’s look first to the earlier stages of the growing season.
The Sauternes Story
As elsewhere, the weather during winter and spring was cool, and more importantly it was wet, with high levels of rainfall in December 2017, the same in both January and March in 2018. The budbreak was relatively late, unsurprising in view of these conditions, which reduced the frost risk, a relief to all after 2017. Sadly continued wet weather through May brought an attack of mildew to match any that occurred in Bordeaux this year. Many estates in the region suffered significant losses at this time, and those that didn’t succumbed during a second wave of mildew that came in July, just as it did further north on the Médoc.
I visited a handful of estates in the region, calling first at Château Climens, my first visit here for two years. Looking back to the 2017 vintage Bérénice Lurton and her team picked enough for 35 barrels, but decided it was not of adequate quality even for the second wine, and it was sold off. With no wine to taste during last year’s primeurs I omitted to visit; it was wonderful to return this year, as tasting through the barrels (each one chalked up with its individual ‘fiche technique‘ as pictured), from the first picking to the last, rather than the blended sample most châteaux present, is the most informative visit in Sauternes and perhaps in the entire Bordeaux region.
