Ten Years On: 2002 Bordeaux
Moving on from the Loire we come to Bordeaux, and although I can only serve about half-a-dozen notes here I think this is an important part of this tasting. As I alluded in my introduction, there have been some calls from wine critics to drink up whatever 2002 Bordeaux you may have bought. My interest piques, I took an earlier-than-usual look at the vintage two years ago, in a 2002 Bordeaux tasting which featured the wines also tasted here. My conclusion was that there was no need at all to rush to drink these wines. They are certainly lighter than other vintages, but there is no reason to not wait for the tannins to integrate and the flavours to develop some more evolved, interesting, secondary characteristics because of that.
All the same, I did recognise that this earlier look may have been to my disadvantage; I personally find most Bordeaux at the cru classé level drinks best at 12 to 15 years of age onwards, and so I wouldn’t usually countenance a first look before ten years of age at the earliest. And so coming back to the wines now, at a more familiar age, I am pleased to see that if anything they show a more convincing character than they did two years ago. Certainly, one or two of the wines have come together very nicely, and display a more harmonious character, especially Ducru-Beaucaillou and Pichon-Lalande. The former seemed very primary and rather green on my last tasting, but it shows a more confident flesh now, and strangely the greener elements seem to have faded. The latter still shows a rather tangy acidity and lighter substance than is seen in more prodigious vintages, but the quality is there.
The most convincing wine, however, was Léoville-Barton, which was also the case on my last tasting. This wine shows all the bright definition of the vintage, but it also possess more than a modicum of flesh, which is the most common deficiency in this vintage. Of all those tasted here, this is undoubtedly the one I would choose to add to my cellar now. Others should not be overlooked, however; I found Gruaud-Larose to be uncommonly attractive, and as is the case with a number of these wines, current prices remain – thanks to the vintage’s reputation as a lacklustre one ignored by Parker – very favourable indeed considering the wines now have ten year’s behind them. (18/12/12)
