Tag Archives: Vintage

We will be going out to Bordeaux next week to assess the 2011 vintage, when it is a bit less busy following the organised tastings. Some things are however already abundantly clear, the main one being that price will be absolutely crucial. The vintage is not 2009 or 2010 and pricing of the top wines needs to reflect this. We were delighted to see Christian Moeuix’ comment that he could drop prices of his top wines by 50%. Such realism is commendable and we very much hope that the properties that are currently talking about only a 10-15% reduction will reconsider their approach. The lesser properties don’t have the luxury of being able to reduce by this amount but we hope that there will be some effort to make purchasing worthwhile. [Editor's note - we've subsequently spoken to Christian personally in Bordeaux and in spite of being widely reported, he says he was in fact misquoted - it was a nice thought while it lasted!]

The next crucial factor is the variability of the wines. There are obviously some which are very good indeed - Pontet Canet for example is being very well received - but also some where there just isn’t the weight of fruit to support the structure. Selection will be crucial. Where the wines have been carefully made without over extraction there are some lovely, fruity, relatively forward examples. In terms of regions, Pomerol especially seems to have done very well indeed. Finally, dry whites and Sauternes, as so often in a difficult red vintage, are very good indeed and well worth seeking out. There seems to be a desire to get the campaign started and finished quickly, unlike last year where everyone waited and then released wines together so some were missed in the rush. We very much hope that things do happen quickly, before interest is lost.

Our Bordeaux 2011 En Primeur webpage features a list of the wines we expect to buy and prices will be confirmed as soon as we receive them, so if you're interested in this year's campaign, you may like to bookmark this page for easy future reference.