Twenty Years On: The 1988 Vintage
This mini-tasting of just five wines from my cellar concentrated solely on the 1988 vintage. It was an impromptu tasting, put together with wines hastily plucked, and hence there was a strong showing from the Loire (which along with Bordeaux fills most of my racks and bins), the wines of this region accounting for 40% of the wines on offer, or 50% if you consider that François Pinon’s Vouvray was from magnum (percentages can be so misleading, can’t they?). Other regions – Bordeaux, the Rhône Valley, Germany’s Mosel – fell in behind with just one wine from each.
For the Loire, although 1988 was not a truly great vintage, weather conditions were sufficiently favourable for many great wines to be made. The flowering was a little earlier than usual, which would normally mean an earlier and less troublesome harvest, but cool and damp weather throughout July slowed the ripening to the extent that this early advantage was lost. Nevertheless there was subsequently some fine weather in August and September, and the harvest went well. In Muscadet, Anjou, Saumur, Touraine and even further upstream in the central vineyards of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, those viticulteurs that waited for full ripeness brought in good quality fruit with the potential to make excellent wines. This is perhaps reflected in this tasting where, as outlined above, two great Loire appellations are represented. The first is Vouvray, but whereas a première trie moelleux wine from a great producer might be an obvious choice, here instead we have an illustration of just how well other wines of the appellation can age, with a sparkling Vouvray Brut from François Pinon. Meanwhile, from the Coteaux du Layon cru of Quarts de Chaume comes a wine from Château Bellerive, an estate I have long patronised.
As far as Bordeaux is concerned, the 1988 vintage in Bordeaux is one I have already described in a little detail. In short the vintage started off with winter rains continuing through into June, delaying and upsetting the flowering. It was only because of dry weather in July, August and September that hopes of this being a good vintage were raised. And in October the temperatures finally took off bringing a true Indian summer to the region, encouraging the ripening of the fruit. As a result the best grapes were ripe with thick skins, giving the better wines plenty of colour and tannin. But it was not all straightforward; the effect of the uneven flowering was as expected, and there was significant variation between varieties, between vineyards, even between vines and bunches, of the maturity of the fruit.
