Posted: Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Good Wines, Tough Sell: The 2002 Bordeaux draw mixed reactions in their debut tastings
By James Suckling
Senior editor James Suckling tasted more than 350 barrel samples of Bordeaux from the 2002 vintage.
The best wine producers in Bordeaux looked slightly perplexed this week as they opened their doors to thousands of visitors who came to sample their newest vintage -- 2002. With the escalating war in Iraq, a faltering global economy and a strong euro, they were not sure if there would be a market for their new baby Bordeaux, which they traditionally begin to sell as futures -- or en primeur -- in the spring following the harvest.
"There is no market for en primeur right now," said John Kolasa, the managing director of second-growth Rauzan-Ségla, which made a 2002 that is potentially rate very good to outstanding (89-91 points). The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, an association of some of the region's best estates, expected 3,600 visitors to the region this week to taste the new vintage, but most châteaus reported a decrease in the number of clients visiting their properties. "Everything is against us with 2002 en primeur," said Kolasa. "Maybe it will be better in September."
The fact is that it was never going to be easy to sell 2002 as futures -- especially not to Americans. But while some Americans may find the taste of French wines repellent at the moment, I haven't noticed any change in their flavors since the war began, even through France's politics at times leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
The problem, however, is principally with the economy, not with the vintage; 2002 made many good to outstanding wines. Based on my exclusive blind tastings of more than 350 barrel samples from 2002 this past week, I give the vintage a tentative rating of 85-89 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale, or very good quality.
The 2002 vintage reminds me of 1996, which was also a year when the weather in the crucial month of August was poor, yet the best Bordeaux estates managed to harvest good-quality grapes. As in 1996, most of the wines from well-known names were of good to very good quality in 2002; a few were even exceptional. But neither vintage should be considered outstanding. Some critics still believe that 1996 is exceptional quality, but the market is now saying otherwise as consumers begin to drink the wines with some disappointment. Large parcels of 1996 Bordeaux are now being offered in the Far East at greatly reduced prices -- but that's another column.
A great vintage is when wines from the lowest appellations to the best châteaus achieve good to excellent quality. This happened in recent years such as 1995 and 2000, but 2002 was not like that. A number of wine merchants who make négociant brands said it was difficult to find good low-end wine in 2002. One even said he would not be making a 2002.
My week in Bordeaux gave me a broad view of the overall character of 2002, and I was surprised with the quality. Even though there were some diluted and slightly green reds, most of the wines I tasted were medium-bodied, with good, clean fruit flavors, fine tannins and a lovely freshness, due to slightly higher acidity levels than normal. They also had good harmony in fruit and tannins, although most were slightly hollow or lean in the center palate. The majority of the 2002s had the same structure as that of the 1996s when I tasted them in spring 1997, although very few 2002s had the overextracted, dry tannins that marred many 1996s.
Comparing 2002 with 2001, another year that made very good to outstanding wines, I still have a preference for 2001 overall, but I feel that the best 2002s may be better than anything in 2001.
The best 2002s that I tasted included Cos-d'Estournel, Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Léoville Las Cases, Mouton-Rothschild, and Le Pin. The Mouton may be the wine of the vintage -- and it could even be better than the 2000 Mouton. The wine has a fantastic cassis, lead pencil and mint character that harks back to such classic Moutons as 1995 and 1986. Apparently the château has cut back slightly on some of the big, toasty oak used in wine maturation to better emphasize the unique terroir of its vineyards. I scored all of the wines noted above at 95-100 points, classic quality.
Other nearly classic quality wines, scoring 92-94 points, include châteaus L'Absolut de Quinault, Ausone, Calon-Ségur, Cheval-Blanc, Le Dôme, L'à‰glise Clinet, Latour, Lynch-Bages, Margaux, La Mission-Haut-Brion, Palmer, Pavie, Pichon-Longueville-Baron, Pichon-Longueville-Lalande, Pontet-Canet and Valandraud.
Despite such successes, the fact remains that you can't make really great wines without exceptionally good weather, and 2002 had a number of problems during the growing season.
After a dry winter, the difficulties began in early June when the weather turned cold and wet. This adversely affected the flowering, reducing the quantity of grapes as well as producing shot berries. This is not always a bad thing for quality since it can leave a smaller crop on the vines, but the weather turned for the worse for most of July and August, the latter being the most important month of the growing season. Both months had a week or so of warm and sunny weather but it was gray, sometimes rainy and cold most of the time. Rot began setting in during the last part of August.
"By the last days of August, we thought the harvest would be a catastrophe," said Denise Capbern-Gasqueton, owner of Château Calon-Ségur.
But September saved the harvest. The weather was not particularly hot, but it was mostly dry and sunny for the entire month, except for a downpour and isolated hailstorm on Sept. 20. A brisk wind also helped the situation, as cool, sunny weather helped abate the rot. Most of the top estates had already cut away infected bunches anyway. Harvest began the last few days of the month and continued under clear skies through early October.
"We always say that August makes the quality of the must, but this year it was September," said Jean-Pascal Vazart of L'Evangile in Pomerol, which made a red of potentially very good or outstanding quality. Many winemakers in Bordeaux said that same thing during my trip. "The quality of the wine was surprisingly good after tasting it at an early stage," Vazart continued. "They have a lovely balance, and the acidity is slightly higher than normal, which gives them a lovely freshness."
Alexandre Thienpont, the winemaker of Le Pin and Vieux-Château-Certan in Pomerol, added, "We harvested Cabernet Franc at Vieux-Château-Certan so late that my great-grandfather would have been amazed. It has close to 14 degrees of natural alcohol. The 2002 made very good wine."
Château Margaux technical director Paul Pontallier and owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos made a nearly classic wine in 2002.
Interestingly, the early conventional wisdom is that 2002 is a Cabernet Sauvignon year. "This is the highest amount of Cabernet Sauvignon that we have ever used," said Paul Pontallier, technical director of Château Margaux. "The Cabernet Sauvignon was such exceptional quality that we didn't need to use as much Merlot."
But my tasting suggests that those who truly excelled in 2002 were winemakers with exceptional vineyards, no matter what varieties they harvested. These included the top-ranked estates, as well as a number of lesser properties with late-harvest vineyards. The best vineyards had fewer problems with drought, and later, the bad weather during the growing season. Moreover, the staff had the know-how and dedication to work hard in the vineyards to combat the adverse growing conditions. In their cellars, they fine-tuned their winemaking to produce fine, harmonious reds.
These top wines should be very good to drink five or six years after bottling, and will most likely age well for another 10 or 15 years. Some will be even longer-lived.
Although a few Americans canceled their tasting trips to Bordeaux this year, the ones that I encountered touring the various châteaus and tastings seemed pleasantly surprised by the quality of the vintage. They felt no threat or hostility from the French, and they were happy to be tasting the wines. In fact, I seemed to run into more American and British wine merchants than any other nationality while visiting in the Médoc.
"We would have a hell of a time to sell the wines as futures but I think that the 2002s will sell once they are in bottle," said one wine merchant from Manhattan, who was tasting at Léoville Barton.
Everyone from château owners to the few consumers I met during my trip agreed on one thing about the vintage: Prices have to come down. Last year, the 2001 prices dropped, depending on the château, about 20 percent to 30 percent. But that was down from the fabulous 2000 vintage, and those prices were at an all-time high. For Americans, it's particularly bad at the moment because the dollar has fallen about 20 percent against the euro since the 2001s were offered last year.
"The only way that anyone is going to buy 2002 en primeur is if they are dirt cheap," said one Bordeaux négociant. "If something like Lynch-Bages was available to the wine trade in America at $20 a bottle, don't you think that people would buy?"
I wouldn't bet on it at the moment, I told him.
Buying new wines that are sitting in the barrels of châteaus in Bordeaux is not a priority for most Americans -- or anybody else at the moment. I am sure that in two years, when the wines are bottled and shipped, consumers will buy 2002. They are good wines, and prices should be attractive for many of them. But tying up money in a young vintage from Bordeaux makes no sense right now. And it's very doubtful the wines will be much less expensive as futures than in bottle, which is a fundamental reason to buy en primeur.
Some châteaus are even seriously considering not selling their wines as futures. "I am prepared to not release my 2002 Cos," said Jean-Guillaume Prats, the managing director of Cos-d'Estournel, which made one of the best wines of the vintages. "There is no market at the moment. You don't want to give an animal water when it is not thirsty."
I thought about those words as I left Bordeaux this morning. The vines in the Médoc had come back to life, green shoots and leafs inching out from their branches. The 2002s must be sold and, one day, consumed, but already another vintage is on its way in Bordeaux.
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