2009 Bordeaux Still Stuns 10 Years On

Looking back on the red wines from a Bordeaux vintage ten years after the harvest is a very British and traditional way to pass final judgement on “clarets”. But it’s just as important to anyone who loves great Bordeaux and wishes to know how the wines are aging.

So it was appropriate that Bordeaux Index in London, a wine merchant who trades in some of the best, recently staged a comprehensive tasting of the 2009 vintage. James Suckling praised many wines of that vintage when he tasted them as young wines and said 2009 was one of the modern great vintages for France’s premier wine region.

2009 was a slightly controversial vintage due to the very high ripeness of the grapes and alcohol levels. This applied particularly to the wines from the Right Bank (Pomerol and St.Emilion) of the Gironde estuary that divides the region in two. There the early-ripening merlot always plays a major role in the blend at famous and less expensive châteaux. In warm years like 2009 these wines can easily reach 14.5% to 15% alcohol. For some that is a cause of dismay; they think so much alcohol can fatally unbalance red Bordeaux causing them to mature and fade too fast. 

The alcohol question

This controversy is far more about emotions and prejudices than facts. But the argument that a high alcoholic content can unbalance a wine needs to be taken seriously.

Experience teaches that, as a rule, wines that start out life slightly unbalanced tend to become more unbalanced as they age in the bottle. So the questions we considered at the recent tasting were: have the 2009 wines become too alcoholic and/or too opulent? And does this lead to an accelerated ageing process in the bottle?

In fact, only one of the 65 wines tasted in London seemed to be fading: Château Belgrave from the Médoc. There were a number of wines from the Right Bank such as Larcis Ducasse and Hosanne as well as the Left Bank such as La Lagune and Palmer that were slightly oxidized or dull. We deleted these notes as well as a handful of others from the tasting as we know the wines well from this vintage and we believe they were bad bottles in the tasting.

Unfortunately, second bottles of these wines stored under different conditions were not available for comparison. 

Also, some wines seemed very closed, underlying how 10 years after the vintage may not be the best time to review the wines. Yet they were drinkable and a suggested decanting two to three hours before serving would be best at this time.

Most of the wines are marked with “drink or hold” but holding would be better in most cases for another three to five years.

2009 Bordeaux wines still stand proud

The good news is that many 2009 red Bordeaux tasted stunning and some were breathtaking. The four wines that rated a perfect 100 points, Château Latour, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Haut-Brion and Le Pin, together with the four that rated 99 points, Château Cheval Blanc, Château Léoville las Cases, Château Margaux and Château Petrus, are all among the finest red Bordeaux made in modern times.

Three wines were rated less than 100 points when James rated them for the first time from bottle: Margaux, Montrose and Cos. The jury is still out on these but they just didn’t have the sparkle I hoped for in the tasting.

They have decades of life ahead of them. In fact, all the wines rated 95+ points are powerful, concentrated wines and should have many years ahead of them. None of them tasted overblown or alcoholic. However, the more opulent high scorers like Château Mouton Rothschild or Château Cos d’Estournel will divide opinion. They will delight hedonists seeking richness, but will surely be too much for those seeking sleek and elegant red Bordeaux. As always, we recommend you consider the ratings and read our notes.

At the time, the 2009 and 2010 vintages were regarded as a pair, like 1989 and 1990. In both cases the earlier vintage was characterized as ripe, with a richer texture than the latter, which was firmer and drier. We concur with these descriptions. But we cannot agree with those who went one step further, dismissing the earlier vintage of each pair as too soft and idealizing the later vintage as more “classic” and therefore more “authentic”. The second set of judgements turn personal taste into dogma. From our point of view, 2009 red Bordeaux has an enormous amount to offer and remains one of the most exciting vintages of the 21st century. — Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor