The annual Claret Tasting, held every year in the seaside town of Southwold since the early 1980’s, was this year tasting the much heralded 2010 vintage. The 20 tasters, including Jancis Robinson MW, Neal Martin and Stephen Spurrier, tasted over 300 wines in 24 flights, all served blind.
2010 is of course, together with the 2009 vintage, half of a legendary back to back pair of vintages that will have Claret lovers debating the merit of each for many years to come. The 2009 being the more voluptuous, open vintage and the 2010 (as was clearly evident) is the more classic. We were all very excited at the prospect of tasting across the communes from Right Bank to Left Bank, the wines having impressed from the first barrel tasting and each subsequent tasting, but were we about to change our perceptions?
The Right Bank was first and the wines of St Emilion, 2010 was without doubt more of a winemaker’s vintage than 2009, and how much those producers want to “express” their wines was a defining factor. Those who were more sympathetic to the vintage tended to fair better. My stand out wines being Ausone, Belair Monange, Cheval Blanc and Tertre Roteboeuf.
Next came the wines of Pomerol, which tended to fair better across the board, with some of the “lesser” wines offering real value and the top wines being outstanding, 2010 is a superb vintage in Pomerol. My choices being Gazin, Hosanna, La Fleur Petrus, Petrus, Trotanoy and Vieux Ch. Certan.
The Medoc / Haut Medoc was an interesting area that showed its diversity, my choices being the “3 C’s” of Camensac, Cantemerle and Clarke.
Saint Estephe was also a “mixed bag” with some surprises. The bigs boys of Cos d’Estournel and Montrose scored highly as expected, but close on their heels was Lafon Rochet, Ormes de Pez and Cos Labory.
Pauillac was where I anticipated the best wines may be found and indeed the First Growths were superb but I also scored some wines lower than I had expected. Both Pichon Lalande and Pichon Baron showed very well, as did their respective second wines Reserve de la Comtesse
and Tourelles de Longueville. Other highlights were Clerc Milon, Grand Puy Lacoste, Lynch Bages and Pontet Canet. In the First Growths, Lafite, Latour and Mouton were all outstanding.
Saint Julien produced some great wines in 2010, at the more affordable end of the price range, Clos du Marquis, Gloria, Moulin Riche and the second wines Petit Lion, Reserve de Leoville Barton and la Croix de Beaucaillou all offer great value. At the higher end of the price range the scores were very closely bunched with my top 11 wines only having a single point difference, my top three being Ducru Beaucaillou, Leoville Barton and Leoville Poyferre. St Julien is an area that I rate very highly across the board in 2010.
Where Saint Julien shone, Margaux was not at its best in 2010, Ch. Margaux being the exception, as it more then held its own with it’s First Growth peers, and the second wine Pavillon Rouge was also one of the Margaux stars. My other wines of note were Brane Cantenac, Cantenac Brown and Malescot St Exupery, and the more obvious Palmer and Rauzan Segla.
Pessac-Leognan produced very good wines for both its red’s and whites. Unsurprisingly Haut Brion and La Mission Haut Brion led the way for both red and white, followed by Domaine de Chevalier, Haut Bailly, Haut Bergey and Smith Haut Lafitte.
In conclusion, 2010 can truly be described as a great and classic Bordeaux vintage, however, anyone comparing it to the equally great 2009, must be aware that the 2010 is the keeper of the two. 2010 has entered its post bottling dumb phase and will, generally, take several years to reveal its true greatness. Essentially enjoyment is to be deferred and patience will be more than rewarded.
By Paul Marus