Bordeaux Primeurs 2021
the vintage of finesse and elegance...
A heavy legacy
Some vintages don't have an easy task, like 2021, which inherited the challenge of succeeding the historic trilogy of 2018-2019-2020, with rather capricious weather!
Early budburst
After a rainy winter alternating between mild and cold temperatures, April began with mild weather, favoring budburst. The first downside: the nights of April 7 and 8 were marked by two successive frosts that affected the entire Bordeaux region.
Slow growth
Early May saw a repeat with new local frosts. The first ones had caused varying degrees of loss, while the cold and gloomy climate of May slowed vine growth.
Favorable flowering
In early June, more summer-like weather conditions allowed flowering to take place. Nevertheless, storms hit the Gironde in the second half of June, bringing heavy rain to some areas, as well as hail, causing damage in certain places.
Small harvest
Overall gloomy and gray, July intensified mildew attacks that began in June. Add in frost and hail episodes, and it’s easy to understand that the harvest is quantitatively small.
Given the small harvest, especially in a context where the cost of raw materials such as glass or wooden crates is soaring, don’t expect prices to drop.
Providential late season
Veraison occurred in mid-August as the vine continued to grow. Late summer was conducive to ripening, with dry and sunny weather and significant day/night temperature contrasts. The harvest of red grapes generalized at the end of September, much later than in previous years, with lower sugar levels, meaning less alcohol. Now that's good news! The maturation of Cabernets benefited from the sunny weather in October, and their harvest took place in favorable conditions.
And yet… 2021 is a very beautiful vintage!
After all these numbers and facts, I take the liberty to quote Jacques Ginaudeau from Château Lafleur in Pomerol:
“Can one summarize a wine year without falling into excess?
Analyses and attempts to compare vintages based on numbers and statistics often prove simplistic and misleading! Reducing the appreciation of a great wine to harvest dates, blending proportions, pH, degrees, or tannin indices is inevitably reductive.
It is tasting that allows us to glimpse and appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of a vintage. A vintage is characterized by a set of independent elements that make up its history and originality: Soil, genetic heritage, climate, and finally the women and men who work the vines daily and sign the wine.”
The text of Jacques Ginaudeau reminds us of an essential point: we should not taste a vintage; we should taste the wine! And there are some very good ones in 2021.
A classic year
With lower alcohol levels and good acidity, Bordeaux 2021, saved by the late season, returns to the roots that forged the glory and success of Bordeaux! It would be wrong to declare it a great vintage, but we can certainly call it an authentic, classic vintage of good quality, reminiscent of wines from the 1990s.
Good aging potential
With gentle extractions and aging processes where the use of new oak is significantly reduced, in many cases, the wines will already be quite accessible in their youth. Nevertheless, and this is a key point, the good acidity levels will allow some wines to age for up to 30 years or more, and for most between 15 and 20 years.
Excellent white wines
The theme of acidity naturally leads to white wines, whether dry or sweet. These wines show beautiful balances between alcohol and structure, resulting in fresh, tense, and thirst-quenching dry wines. The Sauternes wines boast great aging potential and an excellent level, though in very limited quantities.
A vintage right on time
In recent years, markets have increasingly demanded less massive wines, favoring more slender ones, with lower alcohol content and a clear demand for freshness and balance. Well, 2021 delivers all that... even nature is listening to the markets! Undeniably a story of common sense!
Yves Beck, Author-Taster
