BORDEAUX 2021 VINTAGE REPORT

09/05/2022
April marked a welcome return to vineyard visits in France for me. I spent almost three weeks of April catching up with friends in Bergerac, the Southern Rhône and, at the end of April, Bordeaux. It’s a part of my ‘job’ that I love – tasting wine where it is made, talking to growers and sharing wonderful meals. I find it inspirational. All my working life I’ve really just tried to be a mouthpiece or conduit for the passion, skill and enthusiasm that so many of the vignerons I work with have for their craft.

After two years of being unable to travel it was a delight to be in Bordeaux again for the circus that is en Primeur week. This is the chance that important wine buyers from around the world (and me) get to taste the fruits of winemakers’ labours from the previous harvest - in this case 2021.

At this stage in the wines’ evolution, they can taste hard as nails, with aggressive tannins and dominant oak flavours. It is, however, really useful to get a feel for the vintage by tasting, talking, tasting and talking some more. Bordeaux can have a habit of declaring every vintage as the ‘best there has ever been’... so one has to be careful and use a combination of experience and talking to people whose opinions one trusts.

I’ve been tasting Bordeaux wines for a very long time. It is a bit of cliché (speaking as a wine merchant) but Bordeaux is where it all began for me. 35 years ago I stayed in Bordeaux while studying for my French A Level. That was the moment I realised how extraordinary good wine can be, as well as discovering the cuisine that went with it. I’ve been visiting Bordeaux regularly ever since. I still adore the way these wines evolve over many, many years. They give me a huge amount of pleasure.

So to the 2021 vintage…

I’m not going to go on about climate change here but all I will say on this front is that what was uncommon is now becoming normal. What was extreme is now a fact of life. Growers are having to adapt and prepare for once-in-a-generation weather events happening more and more often (so - not once-in-a-generation!): frost, mildew pressure, storms, heat waves, hail.

2021 is a good example of this. Budbreak was early (22nd March at Cos d’Estournel for example) and then frost hit Bordeaux on the 7th and 8th of April with devastating effect. It was a bad one and hit volume for many châteaux. There was humidity and rain through May to early August - which meant mildew pressure and rot. The weather then changed, and was gloriously warm and dry through the harvest.

Well… it’s a little more complicated than that - because harvest dates seemed to vary quite a bit. A huge storm was forecast to hit the region on 2nd/3rd October and many châteaux didn’t want to risk losing the crop. Basically, they panicked, or so it seems to me.

The storm never arrived – it missed Bordeaux completely. What followed, as is so often the case these days, was an Indian summer. A stretch of beautiful sunny and warm weather that allowed the lucky growers to get pretty good ripeness in their grapes – the later ripening Cabernet Sauvignon in particular. This difference really came through in my tastings.

It was a vintage that was rewarded by a heck of a lot of hard work in the vineyard. Grape growers had to react quickly to weather events and then be brutal with grape selection on arrival in the winery. Those that worked hard have been well-rewarded. More on that later...

Grapes
In is hard to speak too generally because there are always exceptions but … in general Merlot suffered. It is more susceptible to mildew and the tannins can be more rustic that Cabernet Sauvignon. So on the Left Bank château after château have made wines with record levels of Cabernet Sauvignon, while trying not to use much, if any, Merlot. Petit Verdot has been used more than in ‘normal’ vintages, adding some power and plenty of spice to the wines. Petit Verdot can be hugely useful and beneficial to the blend. Ben Sichel at Château Angludet (which, by the way, is excellent in 2021) has long extolled the virtues of Petit Verdot as a bridge between Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, making the blend more harmonious. It’s not all bad for Merlot.

When I went to the Right Bank, after two days of tasting on the Left Bank I was really unsure what I would find in these Merlot dominated wines, but I wasn’t to worry: there are some absolute beauties.

For Cabernet Sauvignon, 2021 is a tale of before or after. As we know, Cabernet Sauvignon ripens at least a week later than Merlot. It takes time for those tannins to lose their green edge and for fully phenolic ripeness to be reached. Pick before the imaginary storm of 2nd/3rd October and, almost without exception, you are in trouble. The wines simply do not have enough depth of flavour, body or ripeness. No amount of calling this ‘classic Bordeaux vintage’ or describing it as ‘lower alcohol with more finesse’ will hide the fact that these wines are, for the most part, disappointing. Pick after the storm that never happened and then we’re talking – a whole different level of ripeness, pure cassis and fresh berry fruit with an underlying sweetness that has resulted in wines that are charming, layered, textured and rewarding.

Yes, the vintage is marked by lower alcohol levels. Less of the 14.5% to 15% abv and more of the 13% to 13.5%abv.

This is not a uniform vintage. In all honesty there were wines I tasted that shouldn’t have been made, that I think risk damaging reputations. But there were also truly wonderful wines. A huge amount of work in the vineyard and holding one’s nerve at harvest, then great care and gentle handling in the winery did result in some outstanding wines, which put a huge smile on my face.

These were my visits over the key days of Monday 25th, Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th:

Monday – Cos d’Estournel, Château Montrose, Château Calon-Segur, Château Lafite-R, Château Pontet-Canet, Château Pichon-Baron, Château Lynch-Bages, Château Haut-Bages Libéral, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Château Margaux & Château Palmer
Highlights: Montrose, Calon-Segur, Haut-Bages Libéral, Dufort-Vivens, Margaux & Palmer

Tuesday – UGCB* tasting at Château Giscours, Château Prieuré-Lichine, UGCB tasting at Château Lagrange, UGCB tasting at Château Pichon Comtesse de Lalande, Château d’Armaillac (Mouton), Château Angludet
Highlights: Château Angludet, Château Cantenac-Brown

Wednesday – Château Cheval Blanc, Château Figeac, Château Angelus, Château Canon, UGCB tasting at Château Balestard La Tonnelle, UGCB tasting Château Gazin, Château La Conseillante, Château Fleur de Lisse, Château Ausone, Château Fonplegade
Highlights – more than I was expecting! Cheval Blanc, Figeac, La Conseillante, Fleur de Lisse, Ausone, Fonplegade

*Union Grand Crus Bordeaux

For more information on buying any Bordeaux 2021 or the scores I have given the wines (I tasted well over 150 wines) please contact me

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