A few notes of interest about Bordeaux this month:
The State of Sauternes? We think of wines from Sauternes as necessary dessert wine with the perfect amount of fruit and acidity. But it’s no secret winemakers in the region have been trying to grow the market for their wines, especially in the US. The fact is that even in France, young people aren’t drinking sweet wines, so winemakers are trying new strategies – from lowering sugar content to promoting new food pairings for drinking. Great article from sevenfifty.com on the future of Sauternes and many of the strategies winemakers are exploring.
He’s definitely back: Last month, I noted a blind item that Rudy K. was back at it again, this time in Asia where he lives now post prison-release and deportation from the US. Since then, at least two noted wine writers have posted or released extensive comments about his new counterfeit activities and the wine community’s reaction to them. Look for Neal Martin’s comments on Vinous (if you have access) as he delivers a scathing commentary on the wine aficionados who are embracing and enabling him. Maureen Downey, via W. Blake Grey, also describes some recent “counterfeit versus real” dinners Rudy has set up. What does this mean to the Bordeaux lover? These fakes will trickle back into the auction market eventually, so buyer beware.
Chinese Bordeaux investor arrested: Chinese businessman Qu Naijie has been arrested and is expected to be tried in Paris for embezzling Chinese government funds and investing 32 million euros in 25 right bank Bordeaux chateaux. He was actively investing from 2010 to 2013. There are additional allegations regarding illegal loans and sales transactions.
The Grande Dame of Wine Books: Jancis Robinson talks about the newly released 5th edition of the Oxford Companion of Wine and how the book has become the must-have wine resource. If you don’t have a current edition in your reference library, now would be a good time to add the newest edition of this 30 year old classic to your shelf.
VinExpo Paris – Feb 2024: Wine Paris and VinExpo Paris are back and growing. They’re expanding again and still a hub for connecting to all of your favorite wine industry professionals. More on the dates, etc.
Old Bottle Lunches at Plenitude: On a recent Educateur call, we had a discussion on old bottle events and the lunches at Plenitude in Paris. They’re loosely organized but if you know the restaurant and somm, you should be able to secure a seat. Here’s a write up on the 275th lunch – and the amazing experience.
A Wine Battle with the WHO: The wine industry is firing back at the World Health Organization after a pronouncement that any amount of alcohol could be detrimental to health. But there isn’t even agreement within the WHO, and some say it’s a “neo-prohibitionist” faction ignoring evidence.
A Primer on Pessac-Leognan: Another great in depth look at a region from Elie at Elie Wine Company in Detroit, this time, Pessac-Leognan. You can visit his website and sign up for his newsletters and wine offers directly.
The focus on Pessac-Léognan is a nod to the increasing attention this appellation, (only 35 years old) is getting. The closest vineyards to Bordeaux city, Pessac-Léognan is not only capable of producing some of the world’s finest red wines, but unlike most of Bordeaux, it tends to be made with almost equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is also ground-zero for some of the best, age-worthy dry white wines in France, made from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
A château’s ‘second’ wine has multiple raisons d’être; it may be a marketing tool to get a famous château name in front of consumers at a more affordable price, or it may be an outlet to bottle wines from grapes from younger vines and declassified lots—a system that undoubtedly serves to improve the quality of the Grand Vin. In any case, with the Bordelaise climate warming steadily, wines that were once regarded as cheaper afterthoughts have come into their own, as this week’s package (many of them ‘deep cuts’) sets out to prove.
Land of Diversity: Bordeaux’s Landscape and Boundaries
Although Bordeaux is treated somewhat homogeneously by many who are simply dipping a toe into the waters of wine appreciation—thought of as the home of spectacular châteaux and exorbitantly priced Cab/Merlot blends represented by a few dominant names and families—the truth, as we know it, encompasses a lot more. Its sheer size relative to France’s other wine regions (Bordeaux has 300,000 acres of vineyards compared to Burgundy’s 74,000) guarantees a complex and varied environment capable of supporting an almost endless variety of styles and grape varieties.
Referencing a map, Bordeaux follows the Gironde as it flows southwards from the Atlantic at Pointe de Grave towards the eponymous city. The Left Bank opens up to the appellations of Médoc and then, consecutively, Saint Estèphe, Pauillac, Saintt Julien, Listrac Médoc and Moulis-en-Médoc further inland, and Margaux—with Haut Médoc extending along half of the peninsula. At Margaux, the Gironde divides into two rivers: the Garonne flows north past the appellations of Pessac-Léognan, Cadillac, Graves, Cérons, Barsac, Loupiac, Sainte-Croix-du-Mont and Sauternes while the Dordogne heads west through Côtes de Bourg, Fronsac, Pomerol, Saint-Émilion and its ‘satellites’. In between these two rivers lies the Entre-deux-Mers, a region known for white wine. While the Left Bank of the Bordeaux wine map is home to countless extravagant châteaux, the Right Bank is generally considered more naturally beautiful with Saint-Émilion (despite its confusing classification system) and Pomerol drawing the most attraction.
The Urban Appellation: The Birth Of Pessac-Léognan
The same novice who may not grok the diversity of terroirs within Bordeaux may also admit that they are not familiar with Pessac-Léognan as a stand-alone appellation. This is understandable considering it has existed as such for only thirty-five years, although the soil beneath is the product of millions of years of geology that have deposited a harmonious mixture of ocher, white, red and pink quartz and quartzites, jaspers, flints and Lydians.
Extending over ten communes—Cadaujac, Canéjan, Gradignan, Léognan, Martillac, Mérignac, Pessac, Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans, Talence and Villenave-d’Ornon—the appellation decree was signed on September 9, 1987, marking the recognition of several unique qualities in a terroir that gave birth to the ‘New French Claret’ of Château Haut-Brion, one of the Grand Cru Classé estates in the famous 1855 valuation.
With the replanting of more than two thousand acres of vines, winegrowers have regained the Pessac-Léognan vineyard region that it had in 1935, resisting the urban expansion of the nearby city of Bordeaux.
Today, the total surface area exceeds 4000 of production, with vines and intensely urban landscapes co-existing.
The Originality of Pessac-Léognan Lies in Its Origin
That the area now specified as Pessac-Léognan is capable of producing world-class wines has been noted for centuries. The terroir is characterized by deposits of pebbles and gravel that has accumulated via the Garonne River for nearly two million years. The climate is regulated to the east by the river, which mitigates frost, and to the west by the forest, which protects vineyards from the prevailing winds and keeps the soil moist.
The key features of the appellation include a landscape of low rises that are sufficiently sloping to ensure good drainage, further facilitated by a network of small streams that act as natural drains feeding into the Garonne River; soils consisting of river gravel up to 25 feet deep are set on Tertiary limestone subsoil, both left behind by the river as it changed course during the Quaternary Era. These stones reflect the sun’s radiation, increasing the vines’ sun exposure and accelerating the ripening of the grapes—a combination of factors that represents Pessac-Léognan’s inimitable, inalienable heritage.
Grapes From Wrath: New Research Finds That Warm Summers and Wet Winters Yield Better Vintages in Southwest Bordeaux
Grappling with the pluses and minuses of climate change is a double serving of concern on the plate of every wine region on the planet; Pessac-Léognan is no exception.
First, what we all know to be true: Weather drives wine quality and taste. Temperature and precipitation occurring throughout the year—from bud break, while the grapes are growing and maturing, during harvesting, and even overwintering dormant vines—each play a role. The same vineyard can produce different quality levels in different years despite those wines coming from grapes grown on the same vines, on the same land, and being produced by the same methods.
With climate change upending many of the most predictable weather patterns (even among an otherwise random set of circumstances), a study done by Andrew Wood of the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology paired high-resolution climate data with annual wine critic scores from the Bordeaux wine region in southwest France from 1950 to 2020, and concluded that, “The trend, whether driven by the preferences of wine critics or the general population, is toward stronger wines that age for longer and give you richer, more intense flavor, higher sweetness, and lower acidity. And with climate change generally, we are seeing a trend across the world that with greater warming, wines are getting stronger.”
He adds: “With the predicted climates of the future, given that we are more likely to see these patterns of warmer weather and less rainfall during the summer and more rainfall during the winter, wines are likely to continue to get better. However, there is a tipping point; once water becomes more limited, if plants don’t have enough, they eventually fail. And when they fail, you lose everything.”
Pessac-Léognan’s ability to adapt and take advantage of this natural phenomenon is largely dependent on the commune in question, since each enjoys varying degrees of temperature modulation, allowing for differences in the levels of ripeness, alcohol, and picking dates. For example, Talence is warmer and there, the vineyards are picked earlier than Pessac, while Martillac harvests after Léognan. Overall, however, Pessac-Léognan is becoming increasingly warmer; 2022 saw the earliest start date for harvesting ever. 2022 was also the first vintage where some vintners requested and were able to irrigate select vines in various parcels due to the parching heat. Alice Leuret, Commercial director at Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, indicates that irrigation permits required a mountain of paperwork, and at her estate, was restricted to five acres of young vines.
Six Top Châteaux Second Wines With a Six-Bottle Sampler Package ($298)
The tradition of ‘second’ Bordeaux wines predates Classified Growths by at least a century, and the innovation is credited to Château Margaux, who first released a wine labeled ‘2eme vin’ in the seventeenth century to indicate that the wine, while produced on the estate, came from vines considered unsuited for inclusion in the Grand Vin. In Pauillac, the first estate to make use of a second wine was Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, who debuted La Réserve de la Comtesse in 1874.
These Six second wines represent a cross-section of how Pessac-Léognan has approached the concept. Although the appellation is fairly new, these estates are not.
Vintage 2020 in Pessac-Léognan: ‘Show Stoppers, Intensely Concentrated’
For Pessac-Léognan, the 2020 vintage was brilliant, with perhaps a touch more variance compared to other appellations. The growing season began with an unseasonably warm winter, which transitioned into a warm but humid spring. Although the warmth and humidity ensured the region was spared the worst of the spring frosts, endless rain settled in its place. The excess water and heat meant vine growth was rapid and producers had to be vigilant in managing both the vines and the spread of disease and rot. Unsurprisingly, the warm temperatures led to both an early budburst and flowering and the crop look set to be a large one. Summer brought sizzling temperatures and dry conditions, which ultimately led to concerns with drought. Both July and August were exceedingly dry and terroir became an important factor as to which vines had easy access to water reserves deep in the soil. However, the clear weather allowed for an early harvest in September with producers able to pick at their leisure. The resulting wines were generally brilliant as the grapes had been intensely concentrated by the drought-stricken summer and, as a result, were tiny and full of flavor.
Vintage 2019 in Pessac-Léognan: ‘Sophisticated, Very Pleasant Early Drinking’
The growing season began with a mild winter that evolved into a balmy spring. However, like much of Bordeaux, the region experienced a particularly icy April, which brought a significant risk of frost to the vineyards and producers had to be vigilant to protect the vines. The month also saw heavy rains, which helped hydrate the vines in preparation for what would transpire to be a very warm, dry summer. By mid-summer, the days were hot and arid; the nights, however, fortunately, remained cool, which helped preserve important acidity and aromatics in the grapes. July also brought two heavy rainstorms, which revitalized parched vines, leading to a fine harvest with above average quality.
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