BORDEAUX’S NEW YEAR: A DIFFICULT 2021 COMES OUT EASY (SPECIAL WEEKLY TASTING REPORT)
Thursday, May 12, 2022 -JamesSuckling

It’s hard to think of a vintage to compare with Bordeaux’s new year, which is currently on show throughout the region. I have been tasting new barrel samples in France’s most famous wine area for 39 years now and I have never encountered something like 2021. Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt and I have already rated more than 400 wines since arriving in Bordeaux over the weekend and it’s been great fun and exciting to taste the young wines, both reds and whites, as well as speak with winemakers and visit wineries.

What strikes us is the bright and fresh acidity and relatively low alcohol of the wines. There is an almost crunchy sensibility to so many of the wines with an immediate drinkability to them. They are very easy to taste in most cases and don’t overwhelm you quickly, compared with when we tasted current excellent years such as 2020, 2019 and 2018. The reds we have rated so far are mostly about 13 to 13.5 percent alcohol with pHs of about 3.4 to 3.65. A highly regarded year such as 2020 or 2019 would be one of two degrees of alcohol higher with much lower acidities. The bottom line is that 2021 lacked sunshine.

“It’s hard to believe that a year ago we were already battling the bad weather in the vineyards,” one producer we talked to on Tuesday said with a friendly smile as we were leaving his chateau after tasting his wine. “It’s nice to have a break during the growing season,” he added, referring to the warm and sunny conditions in Bordeaux right now, compared with the wet and cooler weather last year. Wine producers know that 2021 is not a great year. They just seem happy that it’s over and that they made very good to outstanding wines. Of course, this is only with the top wineries of Bordeaux, mostly the stars that have a market with en primeur – the annual release of wines about two years before they are bottled and sold on the market. Everyone who makes wine that we’ve spoken to has said the vintage is extremely heterogenous and that lesser-known wineries made weak wines. We have only found this in lesser appellations so far. The fact that the wines show so well and are so clean and balanced highlights the viticultural and winemaking prowess of Bordeaux. Just about every vintner and winemaker we meet say that 2021 was a year for the “vigneron,” or viticulturalist. That’s to say that they had to spend thousands of hours in their vineyards protecting and reacting to all the problems with their crop.