Fifteen Years On: The 2006 Vintage
After publishing a short review of the Loire 2006 vintage at fifteen years of age earlier this week, featuring wines from Richard Leroy, Clos Rougeard, Philippe Alliet and Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, among a few others, I thought I should continue in the same vein today with a short collection of tasting notes on other wines from the same vintage.
There is no real theme to this very brief report, with just a handful of wines from a few different regions. In truth it represents something of a cellar clear out. Bordeaux is the best represented, with half a dozen wines, not enough to warrant a write-up of their own. The 2006 vintage in Bordeaux was not one I dived into too deeply for my own cellar, coming soon after the more laudable 2005 vintage, which has produced some of my favourite Bordeaux wines of the last twenty years. Alongside I present a smattering of tasting notes on some German stragglers, an orphan from the Northern Rhône, and a lonesome single quinta vintage Port. So without further prevaricating, lets get on with a quick vintage recap.
Vintage Recap
The 2006 vintage in Bordeaux began with a wobble, with a winter drought creating a water deficit which not even heavy rain in March could alleviate, as well as a light April frost. As a consequence flowering was patchy, and yields were destined to be low from the outset. Despite this hopes were high through the summer months, as dry and warm weather in May, June and July brought back memories of 2005. It was in August that these hopes were dashed, as the weather was grey, drizzly and damp. The véraison faltered, introducing some heterogeneity in ripening, and conditions were so damp some even reported rot on the swollen fruit. Although conditions improved in September, rain interfered with the Merlot harvest, and 2006 was destined to be one of the decade’s three ‘also ran’ vintages (alongside 2004 and 2008), with no strong identity.
I don’t propose providing any detail on the 2006 vintage for the other wines tasted here, other than the following soundbites. In Germany it was regarded as a fairly ordinary vintage, following a pattern remarkably similar to Bordeaux, with a warm and dry summer, a damp August and an Indian summer. The wines tended to lack consistency. In the Rhône Valley the story is again similar, August being the dampener (literally) on the vintage, and it is regarded as a decent vintage of easy charm rather than great quality. In the Douro it was not so much the cool weather in August that caused difficulties, but the sizzling temperatures in September, which shrivelled the fruit when still on the vine. This was not a vintage in which any houses declared.
