Bordeaux 2018 Primeurs: St Estèphe
Starting in St Estèphe, I called in on the three leading estates here, these being (running from north to south), and in the order of my appointments, Château Calon-Ségur, Château Montrose and Château Cos d’Estournel. Vincent Millet, the technical director of Château Calon-Ségur, has a strong work ethic, which is reflected by his willingness to meet me for an 8am tasting, so I always start my day here.
The Story in St Estèphe
Vincent Millet denied having experienced any great problems with mildew in the vineyard, and the yield here – a rather strong 41 hl/ha – is clearly in keeping with this. The viticultural philosophy here is raisonnée for the vast majority of the vineyard, with just a few parcels run along organic lines, and so Vincent would have a fairly free hand to spray as he wished, with no self-imposed organic or biodynamic restriction on what products he might use. Alternatively, to Vincent’s mind lower rainfall made life easier here; “St Estèphe had less rain than some appellations further south, and none of the hail that crossed the southern part of the Médoc peninsula”, Vincent explained. Vincent applied fewer treatments than he used in the 2017 vintage, so there may be some truth in this, but others working in the appellation had a rather different experience.
At Château Montrose the mildew caused rather more difficulty. Here much of the vineyard (about 65% during the 2018 vintage) is committed to organics, which restricted how the team here could respond. As a consequence the yields here were rather more modest, just 25 hl/ha, which reflects in part at least the difficulty with mildew, although as I explained in my introduction low yields in 2018 are due to several factors. Maitre de chai Vincent Decup estimates that about 15% of the reduction in yields was down to the mildew, which struck in May, June and July, hitting the Merlot (which is more susceptible to mildew) harder than the Cabernet. The pressure was really on here. “The team met several times during the course of the vintage to discuss coming out of organics, and using synthetic treatments”, said Hélène Brochet, director of communications, “but each time we decided to remain committed to it”. Their resolve is admirable. I am aware of a number of other domaines trying for organics, on both banks, who cracked under the pressure in this vintage. The 2019 vintage at this estate will be 100% organic, and they are trialling rain protection mechanisms to fight mildew (which is something I will discuss in more detail at another time).
