Owners and specialized staff of several dozen Bordeaux châteaux present at a recent wine tasting event in Geneva were all saying the same thing: for reds, 2007 was a good but not a great year; for sweet whites (Sauternes and Barsac) it was not only great but, in the words of Philippe Baly of Château Coutet ‘’this vintage will see out the century’’ – referring to the potential of whites from this vintage for cellar-aging.
The châteaux presenting at the tasting were among over 130 members of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) founded in 1973 to promote and burnish the reputation of wines from France’s Bordeaux region.
And not any old wines – only those ‘’crus both classified and not classified’’, as the union’s website states, ‘’sharing the same aspiration for quality and originating exclusively from the most noble appellations of the Gironde, Médoc, Graves and Pessac-Léognan, Sauternes and Barsac, Saint Emilion and Pomerol.’’
Some Bordeaux Basics
For those unfamiliar with Bordeaux wines, all this talk of châteaux, and words like crus, ‘’classified’’ and ‘’appellations’’ will draw a blank. Another question mark may also appear because many are not familiar with the grape varieties that make up these wines.
Bordeaux wine estates are usually called châteaux, although infrequently some may have other names, e.g. Clos Fourtet. Clos is a word for vineyard. A cru is called a ‘’growth’’ in English, and it’s a class of wine based on several systems of classification including one developed in 1855. (Hence the reference to classified, i.e. is the cru in question on one of these lists or not. The lists are easy to access on the Internet.)
An appellation is one of 57 specific places of production (also easy to find on the Internet), so this system enables one to situate more exactly where the wine comes from. If all this is understood, a label reading ‘’Château Cantenac Brown, Grand Cru Classé en 1855, Margaux’’ suddenly is demystified: we are dealing with a wine listed in the 1855 classification from the Cantenac Brown wine estate in the area of Margaux. The year on the label refers to the year the grapes were harvested. Any reference to a wine's ‘’vintage’’ also denotes the year the grapes it is made from were harvested.
Bordeaux Grape Varieties
Red Bordeaux wines are blends usually using, in varying percentages, two to four of the following varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Malbec and Carménère may also be used. Sweet Sauternes and Barsac whites are blends of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and perhaps Muscadelle. A few other varieties are also permitted. One is expected to know the main grape varieties used for Bordeaux reds and sweet whites: none will be listed on wine labels.
Wine expert Jancis Robinson gives a good run-down of Bordeaux wines on her website. Click through from there to the bordeaux.com site which is also excellent.
Bordeaux Wine Tasting In Geneva
Held in a hotel ballroom, wine professionals and members of the press could access the tasting in the afternoon, with the evening open to the general public. After picking up a tasting glass at the entrance, visitors made their way around the room sampling wines and discussing them with representatives of the wineries. Spittoons were strategically placed as tasting, not drinking, was de rigueur at the crowded affair in some ways resembling a trading floor.
Conversations centered on the percentages of the different grape varieties in the blends, how long both reds and whites had been barrel-aged (and how much of that was in new oak), and how long the vintages would keep – a couple of decades only for this vintage’s reds, significantly longer for the whites.
Philippe Baly, but also Eric Larramona, director of Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Didier Frechinet, public relations manager of Château La Tour Blanche, and Marie-Louise Schÿler, communication director of Château Suduiraut, all stressed the desirability of decanting the sweet whites no matter how old and serving them at temperatures between 10 and 14° C (50 to 57.2° F).
Ideal Time For Drinking 2007 Bordeaux Reds
If the 2007 whites were already quite a treat even now, the reds – if decanted, and served at around 18° C (64.4° F) with red meat – would just do the trick right now but ideally needed several years of cellar aging before drinking.
This is not at all unusual for such wines, meant in any case to be laid down, but did the producers of reds share this conclusion? Regardless of the different individual qualities of their wines, all those asked – representatives from Château LaTour-Martillac, Château Picque Caillou, Château La Tour de By, Château Cantenac Brown, Château Pichon-Longueville, Château Pontet-Canet and Château Cos Labory – agreed.
The UGCB is holding tastings of the 2006 vintage in Asia:
- November 18, 2009 (Beijing)
- November 19 (Guangzhou)
- November 21 (Shanghai)
- November 23 (Seoul)
- November 25 (Osaka)
- November 26 (Tokyo)
The UGCB is holding tastings of the 2007 vintages in the US:
- January 21, 2010 (Atlanta)
- January 22 (New York)
- January 25 (Chicago)
- January 27 (Los Angeles)
- January 28 (San Francisco).
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