I woke up at 5 am this morning at Gatwick airport (top photo from my hotel room) to take the British Airways flight to Bordeaux to taste France’s premier wine region’s most recent vintage, 2013. I found myself repeatedly wondering, “how bad could 2013 be?”
Of course, I have spoken to dozens of winemakers in the last five months since the end of the harvest in Bordeaux. I know how bad the weather was during the growing season. I still remember how cold and wet it was during last year’s mega-wine fair in Bordeaux – VInExpo – and how everyone was literally freezing, myself and my wife included.
The bad weather continued for most of the summer and fall with moments of warm and sunny weather in parts of July, August, and September. But the quality of the vintage was compromised from an early stage. In 2013, just about everything went wrong in Bordeaux for growing grapes from the lack of sunshine to the below normal temperatures, abundance of rain, hail storms, and disease.
The result is a small crop of questionable quality. Just how bad the 2013 wines are remains to be seen. I will let you know after this intensive week of tasting.
I can’t help but think back to 1985, when I began tasting the mediocre vintage of 1984 with famous Bordeaux courtier Daniel Lawton. He didn’t seem bothered by the green and aggressive character of the vintage. I didn’t mind it either. I remember the wines were fresh and fruity, albeit slightly vegetal and herbal. Back then, I didn’t really know much about tasting barrel samples. It was only my second or third time doing so.
I remember Daniel telling me that green vintages in Bordeaux always find a home or drinker somewhere. And I think a lot of the vintage was sold in America following the successful en prmieur, or futures, campaigns of 1982 and 1983.
I even bought a few cases of 1984 Chateau Fieuzal and Lynch-Bages futures from a London wine merchant. I think I paid about $5 or $10 per bottle. Of course, that was a lot of money to me at the time as a young writer for The Wine Spectator living in Paris. But I had never bought futures and prices seemed relatively reasonable because the US dollar was so strong against the French Franc and British Pound. I wanted to make my first futures buy!
I expect the same could happen if prices dropped significantly for 2013. New consumers, particularly those in Asia and North America, might be interested in buying the top wines of 2013 if they were priced more reasonably. How about 150 Euros a bottle for first growths or 60 Euros for second growths?
Then again, I also remember recently drinking a bottle of 1984 Fieuzel that I found in my cellar. Believe me, it wasn’t very good. Let’s hope 2013 is better quality for the top names of Bordeaux. Just picked up my rental car (bottom photo view of Bordeaux airport vines from Eurocar rental desk.)
