Bordeaux 2023 at Two Years: Pessac-Léognan, Red
It is pitch black and the streets are still quiet, with just a little light early-morning traffic passing by the end of the road. So small is the hour that what passes are mostly morning delivery vans, en route to nearby urban supermarchés, or perhaps taking the day’s baguettes fresh from the local boulangerie to the doors of customers. There are a few very early commuters on the road, hardy souls who have not long scraped the frost from the windscreen. And even hardier souls on scooters and bicycles, on their way to a day at the office, their gloves hopefully protecting their fingers from the numbing cold.
Before long a refuse lorry appears, its brightly-clad crew of two leaping from their footplates at the rear to gather together the capacious wheelie bins which serve the local residences. Having guided them to the lift at the back, they return them to something vaguely approximating their original positions.
Yes, the word vaguely is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
With the passing of time tiny glimmers of daylight begin of illuminate the sky; dark impenetrability begins a transformation, gradually revealing familiar shapes; trees, the outline of buildings, lamp posts, and on the far side of the road a elegant cast iron railing. Behind it the building begins to show signs of life. Lights behind doors and windows.
A light in the tasting room. The sign.
I head over the road, taking care to not be mown down by a distracted commuter – death by silent electric scooter holds no appeal for me – as I do so. I head inside and take a seat for the first tasting of the day, at Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion.
This day of tasting the wines of the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux took me from the commuter-crowded city streets, where I also called in at Château La Mission Haut-Brion, down through the appellation of Pessac-Léognan calling in at a number of properties along the way, including Château Haut-Bailly, Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte and Domaine de Chevalier.
