Despite the freezing conditions, many of the great and
good from the wine trade made the annual pilgrimage to Suffolk to re-taste the
much vaunted 2009s.
This was the vintage of the century, a vintage that boasts
17 hundred point wines, so how do they stack up three and a bit years on? Well
the first observation is the tannins. From barrel, these were almost undetectable.
Most of our notes referred to silky, velvety tannins, mainly masked by opulent
fruit. Today, the wines are quite obviously tannic. They have lost some of that
hedonistic quality and have gained in structure. This all bodes well for long term
storage, but may put impatient souls off...
Another surprise was just how big a gulf there is between
the top names and the low-mid-range Clarets. vignerons and negociants declared
2009 to be a 'great', 'homogenous' vintage with quality produced from top to
bottom. They are right, many of the smaller estates have produced their best
wines in 2009, but from the evidence of this tasting, you cannot expect to
obtain First Growth quality on a cru bourgeois budget. At the affordable level
the likes of Gloria, Clos des Quatre Vents, Poujeaux, Roc de Cambes, Lafon Rochet, Langoa Barton and Haut Batailley all had very strong
showings and offer very good QPR (quality price ratio).
Where the vintage becomes really interesting is at the
very top echelons. These flights from both banks of the Gironde were quite
exceptional. Duhart Milon, Latour, Lafite, Mouton Rothschild, Montrose, Ducru
Beaucaillou, Las Cases, Cheval Blanc, Canon, Ausone, Eglise Clinet, Clinet, Le
Pin, Petrus and Palmer all deserve special mention. I gave two 20/20 scores to
Latour and Montrose and on another day I may have awarded Lafite, Mouton and
Eglise Clinet the same accolade. Other estates worthy of a special mention
include Domaine de Chevalier Rouge (£540/cs) and Grand Puy Lacoste (£575/cs).
Both offer outstanding quality and punch well above their weight.
The final session was devoted to the whites. I have to
admit, the 2009 Sauternes and Barsacs rather passed me by when we tasted from
barrel. All the hype surrounding the reds swallowed me up and I feel I rather
missed a trick. 2009 produced splendid botrytis and the wines display everything
needed for successful cellaring: richness, density, complexity, freshness and
balance. They are delightful wines, and whilst they will always play second
fiddle to the reds, they should certainly not be forgotten. My highlights
included Doisy Vedrines, Lafaurie Peyraguey, Suduiraut and Rieussec.
So in conclusion, the reds are shutting down. Apart from petit
chateaux, I would suggest holding the 2009s for a minimum of five years to
experience them at anything like their best. If there were any concerns that
2009s were not built for long-term storage, this tasting should dispel that
theory; these are massive, structured, profound wines that will cellar
effortlessly and give their owners years of pleasure.
*All the views in this blog are mine and they are not necessarily
shared by the rest of the tasters.
