Appraising A New Vintage

Based on text originally published Inside Bordeaux (2020, BB&R Publishing)

Five conditions for success: a checklist

In Bordeaux, the success of a wine vintage is subject to five conditions, as set by the Institute of Wine and Vine Science.

Think of this as a checklist that individual vintages either meet or do not that impact the character of a vintage:

1. Swift, early flowering
2. Even fruit set
3. Hydric stress at the right time
4. Drought and moderate heat during ripening
5. Dry and sunny weather during harvest

1. Swift, early flowering and (2) fruit set, both of which encourage consistency later in the season for the colour-change (veraison) and grape ripening. This is equally true for red, white and sweet wines.

It should be noted that temperature is the most important thing during fruit set rather than a lack of rain – obviously rain is not ideal, but if temperatures don’t drop too low, the process can continue fairly smoothly. If not, the issues are coulure (flowers that don’t set into fruit) and millerandage – uneven bunch

development with hard green berries that never ripen and sit next to normal grapes, complicating viticulture right through to harvest and sorting the

grapes in the winery.

3. Hydric stress at the right time, which means sufficiently in advance of veraison so the green parts of the vine (shoots, leaves and so on) stop growing

and concentrate their energy instead on giving sugar to the berries. If rain continues for too long, berry size will be too big for truly concentrated wines. White wines are a little less affected by this than red, and this is when soil-type really kicks in, but as a blanket rule green growth should stop three to four weeks in advance of veraison for red grapes, and one to two weeks for white grapes. Essentially this means a dry July is best, particularly the second half of the month.

4. Drought and moderate heat during the ripening period after veraison, with a sufficient but not excessive hydric stress, to encourage the production

of sugar and other phenolic and aromatics compounds, and to thicken skins. This is the point at which the isobutyl-methoxypyrazine compound (also known as pyrazine, or IMBP) responsible for green pepper flavours in Cabernet Sauvignon can be reduced to below perceptible levels. Overly dry or hot conditions mean ripening can block, which again is where terroir is key. This is again a stage where red grapes take the heat better than white, as aromatics and fresh acidities are so vital to white wine quality.

5. Dry and sunny weather during harvest, with enough light rainfall that growers can wait for ripeness in different plots and grape varieties. A little

rain is essential at this point for Sauternes estates that need the process of noble rot to start. Too much rain can cause not only rot but dilution and loss of fruity aromas across all colours.

As this makes clear, it matters what happens when, so 200mm of rain during flowering or in September is not the same thing as 200mm falling cumulatively over the entire season. It is important to track what happens in different parts of the region – if, for example, St-Estèphe and Margaux have very different weather patterns in the same year, and why Left Bank gravels might do far better than Right Bank clays in certain years.

The Role of Terroir

Bordeaux-lovers get taught certain rules about vintages. We learn that hot, dry years equal good, and cool, wet ones bad. We are used to taking a fairly blanket approach to whether a specific year is successful or not – perhaps allowing a further breakdown into Left Bank or Right Bank. It seems clear to me that we need to move away from this one-dimensional approach, and instead give greater weight to the role of terroir.

This is even more true today than it has been in the past, since we are dealing with the effects of a changing climate that may be altering our traditional expectations. So we see the wines of Fronsac and Castillon – on limestone soils, but cooler than St-Emilion – that have historically battled with more rustic tannins in their youth, beginning to shine in warm dry vintages where their neighbours in St-Emilion might find alcohol levels rising way beyond their traditional levels.

Generally speaking, the warmer climate means that it has become extremely rare to have vintages like 1972, when grapes stubbornly refused to ripen across the entire region (although 1992 came close), but it’s worth remembering that in challenging years like 2007, 2013 or 2021, there will always be certain soil types that do better than others. And because the general image of a vintage determines prices in Bordeaux, knowing the spots that did well can help you either to find bargains, or to be sure that you are paying for a wine that has the chance of truly going the distance.

Even within acclaimed vintages, you just have to look a little closer to see that things are not as uniform as they seem. In the extreme heat of 2003, having some clay in your soils was extremely helpful, particularly if the estate was also close to the river and able to benefit from any cooling breezes that came along. It’s why St-Estèphe wines tended to be the best in the Médoc from that year, and why Latour, Pichon Comtesse and Léoville Las Cases were also standout successes, with their location right next to the Garonne and their clay subsoils retaining freshness even among the gravel. Over on the Right Bank in 2003, it was extremely challenging to keep the Merlot fresh enough for long ageing, even if they were spicy, powerful wines in the early years.

Of course in difficult vintages the best châteaux (in this context, often the ones with the biggest budgets) can maintain the quality of their first wines by carrying out a severe sorting process. In years where even this is not possible, the top châteaux may not produce a grand vin and only offer their second-level wines – something that happened, for example, in 2013 with Cheval Blanc.