Some highly rated Bordeaux Right Bank wines in this week’s report highlight how the 2021 vintage made some superlative wines with merlot despite being one of the most difficult grape-growing seasons in recent history due to everything from spring frosts to torrential rains and a lack of sunshine.
Check out the likes of Belair-Monage, Canon, Croix de Labrie, La Fleur-Petrus, Rocheyron, Trotanoy, and Valandraud in this report to see that it was possible to make outstanding quality wines in such a brutal vintage. The wines certainly don’t have the plushness of fruit and impressive structure of top vintages like the recent great trilogy of 2018, 2019 and 2020. But they have a finesse, polish and classicism in character that will allure lovers of Bordeaux and they won’t need to wait long to enjoy them. Some are already there. I used words like “caress,” “balance” and “fine” to describe the top wines in this report and in general for the best red wines of the 2021 vintage.
“We lost like 250 hours of sunshine compared to previous vintages,” said Olivier Berrouet, the winemaker for Chateau Petrus. (I will taste his 2021 from bottle in April.) “The budbreak appeared at the same time as 2020, but there was a gap [delay] of three weeks for the harvest.” According to Berrouet, if you accepted the “typicity of 2021” and waited for full maturity, in the end there was little pressure at harvest. Who knows what wines Bordeaux would have made if some sun and warmth hadn’t arrived in parts of August, September and October?
There are also some 95-point reds from favorite chateaus such as Lynch-Bages, Rauzan Segla, and Pape-Clement that highlight how the Left Bank could make some top quality wines in 2021. They must have worked like hell to reach this level of excellence!
As I noted last week, the dry and sweet whites are pretty sensational. Take a look at such whites as Cos d’Estournel and Pape-Clement as well as Larrivet-Haut-Brion. These are solid, structured whites that Bordeaux delivers in cooler years. No Sauternes 2021 in this week’s report but some tiny production unicorn wines exist.
It’s impressive to think what work went into making 90- to 95-point wines in a vintage like 2021. It must have been so difficult during the growing season for all the problems with the oppressive climatic events on a regular basis. The best vineyards and top producers knew how to deal with this and pivoted throughout the season to maintain the quality of their grapes. A serious selection in the vineyard and winery was necessary to keep the best grapes and later to make the best possible wines.
I only wish that an even better upside to the prices of 2021s existed compared with the most recent string of top vintage or even the delicious 2017. For example, the average price of Trotanoy 2021 on Wine Searcher is $281 while the 100-point 2020 is $368. Canon 2021 is $131 while the 98-point 2020 is $214. But they are clearly less expensive and more attractive when young. So, this should give them some allure. However, the clearly superior 2019s are only a little more expensive than the 2021s, so keep this in mind.
We also rated more than 150 California wines for this report, mainly from the excellent 2021 vintage, which continues to showcase balanced structure and nice freshness, especially from Napa Valley vineyards. Our top-rated wines this week are cabernet sauvignons, but there are also a few pinot noirs to check out in the notes below.
WARMING UP IN BADEN
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott made his last tasting tour of the year to the south of Baden, Germany, which is close to the borders with Switzerland and Alsace in France. Historically, this is the warmest place in Germany, and even by the late 1980s, Joachim Heger, the winemaker for Dr. Heger winery at the time, had told Stuart, “It’s a poor vintage if we don’t get 13 percent natural alcohol with pinot blanc, gris and noir” – or weissburgunder, grauburgunder and spatburgunder, as they are known in Germany.
Climate change has created that situation to one in which winemakers must often be careful to avoid the alcoholic content exploding with these varieties. The same applies to chardonnay, which back then was an experimental varietal but is now widely grown. 2021 was a rare exception to this new climatic situation, due to the relatively cool growing season and the heavy rain during the first half of the summer.
That rainfall, and the mildew this resulted in, were as much a challenge as they were in Burgundy, the French homeland of South Baden’s main grapes for quality wines. However, Stuart found more exciting wines than expected, none more so than the enormously concentrated and energetic Bernhard Huber Chardonnay Baden Schlossberg GG 2021 – an essence of the limestone soil of this precipitously steep site. Winemaker Julian Huber, the son of the deceased founder, also amazed with the Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Schlossberg GG 2021, an incredibly racy pinot noir with mind-blowing minerality.
The other shining pinot noir stars were from earlier vintages. The Salwey Spätburgunder Baden Kirchberg GG 2020 has a stunning nose of ripe cherries, then compact fine tannins and stunning vitality that pushes the finish in the direction of eternity. The Karl H. Johner Spätburgunder Baden SJ 2018 is proof that even in the hottest year ever recoded it was possible to marry wines with great delicacy and finesse as well as the high physiological ripeness and mellowness typical of 2018 right across Northern Europe.
There were also a few stunning dry whites from the pinot blanc and pinot gris grapes. Dr. Heger produced three beauties in the 2021 vintage, of which Stuart’s favorite was the Dr. Heger Weissburgunder Gras im Offen GG 2021, which combines restrained power with herbal coolness and smoky minerality. This is a very distinctive dry pinot blanc from a site that is a cool niche in this warm environment.
There was also one astonishing dry white cuvee, the Salwey Baden Sieben Winter 2016, a blend based on pinot gris with some chardonnay that spent seven winters (that’s what “Sieben Winter” means in German) in casks of various sizes. It has no perceptible oak. It has enormous structure, textural complexity and umami, but has a remarkable freshness for its age – in short, a unique wine.
A TOUCH OF BUBBLY FROM ENGLAND
In Hong Kong, Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt tasted a selection of sparkling wines from English winery Roebuck Estates. The project was founded 10 years ago and now comprises six vineyards across Sussex and Kent in the south of England, where the soils – a mixture of chalk, clay, sand and loam – are similar to those found in Champagne. The long, cool growing season is also suited for slow flavor accumulation in their chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier grapes.
The four wines in this week’s report are precise and sharp, yet rich in flavor. All are vinified with a block-by-block approach. The Classic cuvees are blends of all three varietals, with the 2016 more sleek and biscuity dominated by chardonnay, while pinot noir leads in the richer 2017.
The Roebuck Estates Sussex Blanc de Noirs 2015 is a pure pinot noir from a mix of Burgundian and Champenois clones planted on their clay-rich vineyard Roman Villa. It’s long and flavorful with breadth and generosity. And check out their Rosé de Noirs 2017, a delicate and fresh sparkling rosé from pinot noir with some meunier. Both wines encapsulate the quality coming out of England right now.
– James Suckling reported from Hong Kong. Stuart Pigott and Claire Nesbitt contributed reporting.
The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.
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