Fifteen Years On: The 1999 Vintage
This small collection of notes on wines at fifteen years of age takes in a broad range of European regions, although with only a small array of wines. In my cellar the vintage is most convincingly represented by Burgundy (which must be a first!), wines such as the 1999 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot Clos du Prieuré (pictured) nevertheless I have only included three bottles here. I initially pulled more from the cellar, but having tasted these three I decided I would rather leave the rest for another five years, maybe ten. And so back to the cellar they went.
Bordeaux
This leaves Bordeaux the most well represented region in this tasting. The 1999 vintage is not one I have ever really focused on, and although I have encountered many of the vintage’s Sauternes I am much less familiar with the red wines, from either bank, and so it was instructive to taste these wines. All three red wines hail from St Julien, and although I have tasted them all before it was some time ago now. The Château Branaire-Ducru impressed with its performance, and was a little stronger than I thought when I last tasted it (quite some years ago now), on a par with the wine of Château Léoville-Barton. Lagging behind slightly was Château Gruaud-Larose. The over-arching style here is of soft, fruit-led approachability, quite a contrast to some wines from this vintage tasted in their youth, when they seemed rather more structured and tannic.
The Sauternes from 1999 are brilliant; it is an under-rated vintage, as most Sauternes addicts are (quite rightly) more likely to go to 2001, and anyone tempted back into the 1990s is I feel perhaps more likely to look to 1997, which was a very well regarded vintage at the time. My experiences with 1999 have, however, been wholly positive, with Château Climens and Château Rieussec being particular favourites, but Château Doisy-Védrines also showed very well, and Château Guiraud is not a wine to ignore even if it does have that very typical Guiraud orange-praline richness to it.
