Ten Years On: The 2006 Vintage
This year my look at wines now ten years old takes us back in time to the 2006 vintage. You might think this opening sentence states the blindingly obvious, but it is only a few weeks ago that I posted a picture of a 1986 Pinot Gris from Trimbach on Instagram along with a comment on how well the wine was doing bearing in mind it was forty years old. It was a moment of complete brain failure, and in recent times these ‘moments’ seem to have been increasing in frequency. So look upon my introductory sentence as a reminder to me as to exactly which vintage I am supposed to be looking at here. You almost certainly don’t need it pointing out so plainly. I, however, certainly do!
As in other recent years, this report is a small one. I once believed ten years was very old for a wine; I recall reading, perhaps twenty-five years ago, a Ten Years On tasting in Decanter magazine with a sense of awe and wonder. I had never before seen so many ‘old’ wines gathered together at once. I have long since recognised, however, that many wines of quality will easily age to fifteen, twenty or more years, and they drink better too, and so I have shifted the focus of my tasting (or should that be drinking) to these later time points. In addition, I now endeavour to publish reports on both Bordeaux and the Loire Valley at ten years of age, perhaps reducing my eagerness to open more bottles here. As a consequence this is really a token look at the vintage, the corks pulled purely so that I could check in few wines where I have a six-pack or case on the go, and reported on here for the sake of tradition more than anything else. I present notes below on handful of wines from my two regions of interest, featuring the likes of Bernard Baudry and Philippe Alliet, Château Sociando-Mallet and Château Langoa-Barton. I follow up with a third handful from Germany, and a lone interloper from the Rhône Valley. How did that bottle end up in my cellar, I wonder?
The Wines
In the Loire Valley the vintage was marked by cool weather during spring, then delightful weather through June and July which raised everybody’s hopes. Halfway through August, however, it began to rain, and it carried on raining right through harvest. As a consequence it ended up being a much more challenging vintage, but committed vignerons still made wines of very high quality. The two wines from Philippe Alliet are wonderful, especially the 2006 (just reminding myself of the vintage again) Coteau de Noiré, which is superb. I bought these bottles at the domaine many years ago. I had hoped to find them selling the 2005 vintage but these had all been sold and Philippe and Claude had moved on to sell the 2006s. I was initially disappointed, but tasting the wines I realised they were still fantastic, and I loaded up. It was good to be reminded that vintages shouldn’t be the sole driver behind purchases; wines from less exalted years can also be worthy of our time.
