“The best in my lifetime” were the words used by France’s foremost wine critic Michel Bettane to describe the 2009 vintage for Bordeaux red wines.  Jacques Thienpont, owner of Pomerol’s Chateau Le Pin said that it was quite rare to be able to say that weather conditions were perfect throughout the growing season, but that it was true of 2009.

Charles Chevallier, who oversees L’Evangile in Pomerol and Rieussec in Sauternes as well as Lafite-Rothschild and Duhart-Milon in Pauillac, limited himself to just two words:  “joyful harvests”.  Having spent ten days in Bordeaux at the end of March tasting over 500 wines, Bordeaux certainly seems to have reached new heights in 2009.

Bordeaux vintages are all too often viewed as whether they are better on the Left Bank (Medoc and Graves) than on the Right (Pomerol and Saint-Emilion), whether it was a Cabernet or a Merlot vintage.  1996 was the former and 1998 most definitely the latter, yet 2009 was perfect for both, “a dream harvest in late September and October that took place during unusually dry conditions” according to Bordeaux’s Faculty of Oenology.  The concentration in the 2009s is a positive result of global warming, the higher alcohols being balanced by an overall freshness from natural acidity and the ageing potential being guaranteed by the highest levels of tannins ever recorded in Bordeaux. 

Comparisons were inevitable with 2005, with general agreement that, while this had more structure, 2009 had more fruit.  The high alcohols that were a concern at the start turned out to be necessary to balance all the other components and my notes were full of “fragrance, purity, depth, harmony”.  As Bill Blatch of Vintex, with four decades of experience in Bordeaux, said “the 2009s appear to have a “togetherness” that will make them approachable in their youth but also, like the 1959s and 1929s, unexpectedly long-lived”.  And while the hot summer made dry whites a little richer, less elegant than 2008 and 2007, Sauternes and Barsac benefitted from an early harvest with conditions perfect for botrytis to develop, alongside a surprisingly (for these beautiful sweet wines) a satisfactorily large crop.

In its lengthy report, the Bordeaux Faculty of Oenology stated that “2009 met the five conditions required for a great red Bordeaux vintage”:

1 & 2 – early flowering and fruit-set at the beginning of June, accompanied by sunny and dry weather.
3 – colour change was early, starting in late July.
4 – ripening was complete thanks to hot weather and variable rainfall in August and September.
5 – perfectly dry conditions during the harvest.

The Faculty added that “the excellent 2005 vintage met these five conditions perfectly; the very good 2006 vintage met the first three; the difficult 2007 was only saved by the fifth condition, while the 2008 met the third and fifth, but not the fourth.”  General opinion accepts that the heatwave vintage 2003 will not have the longevity of a great red Bordeaux, and that 2000 was somewhat over-rated, many chateaux preferring their 2001.  Comparisons between 2005 and 2009 as the greatest two vintages of the decade will be the subject of discussion for many years to come.

There is no doubt that the First Growths will be very expensive, fuelled by demand from Asia and the handful of top “super seconds” will aim very high indeed, but these apart, prices should not be exorbitant for the quality.  In any Bordeaux vintage there are unsung heroes.  A few years back it was the Fronsacs, now it is the “simple” appellations of Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superieur, 1eres Cotes de Bordeaux, Cotes de Blaye, Cotes de Bourg.  Such wines are the new Bordeaux.