Bordeaux 2023 Primeurs: Sauternes & Barsac
I swung the wheel to the right, and the road ahead of us dipped down, before it flattened out to join the main carriageway.
Taylor Swift (surely by this point I don’t need to explain how she came to be in the car with me, do I?), who had the passenger seat fully reclined, opened one eye and lifted her head an inch or so, just enough to see over the dashboard.
“Huh? We’re going on the autoroute? How come? Did you finally come to your senses and agree with my suggestion that we should make some visits in Provence instead? You know they make some good rosé there. You should try them.”
“I’m afraid not,” I replied, although in truth I had no fear. We were not headed for Provence, but for Paradise. The châteaux of Sauternes and Barsac awaited us. But they are sufficiently far south of Bordeaux to warrant a short stint on the autoroute.
For the past few years I have not visited Sauternes and Barsac during the primeurs, for several reasons. First, Château d’Yquem withdrew from en primeur sales, and so stopped preparing barrel samples for tasting. Secondly, a string of disastrous vintages for Château Climens meant that for many recent vintages the proprietor Bérénice Lurton had no samples to show; there was no 2017 after that year’s frost, and while I tasted from the barrels in the mildew-afflicted 2018 vintage in the end Bérénice was not content with the quality, and no wine was released. There was a wine released in 2019, but none in 2020 or 2021, both vintages lost, through hail and frost respectively.
With both Climens and Yquem out of the game, and most other wines available for tasting in Bordeaux, there was no need to get on the autoroute south.
Time has moved on though. A majority stake in Château Climens was sold, and Jérôme Moitry is the new owner. Last year he showed his wine in a rented location in the centre of Bordeaux, but this year I drove down to see him at the estate. It was a good decision, because I was also able to taste all his dry wines, not only in the 2023 vintage (and reported on in my 2023 Appellation Bordeaux report) but also in prior vintages (a separate report to follow).
And with Château Climens done, while down this way I thought I would also pop in to see Jean-Pierre Meslier at Château Raymond-Lafon.
“And you were late,” chimed my spirit guide.
“Yes, I know, sorry. I was expecting two or three wines at Château Climens, not a dozen. It did put me behind for the rest of the day.”
“Oh, it’s not me you should be apologising to,” she replied, as she made a few more marks in her little black pocket book. More comments for Ronan Laborde and the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, no doubt.
