2012 Bordeaux

[DavidG]

Reports from the 2012 en primeur campaign are starting to appear. Here's Gil Lempert-Schwartz' take.

"SO HERE'S THE DEAL WITH THE 2012's...
This year I was starting to feel a little older, since I am approaching my Silver Jubilee for En Primeur tastings. I will admit it right from the start, that I spent less time tasting here in Bordeaux than even last year and probably the least amount of time since 1997, but nevertheless once you done it enough, there are certain "markers" you can look for in terms of what's good and what's not. This year, tasting the 2012's there's a whole lot of not good and not a whole lot of good. Or stated in other terms, the 2012's overall are of a quality level equal to or even worse than 2011, meaning this might end up the lesser of 2011, 2007 and 1997 vintages overall.

Now as with every vintage - and considering the incredible advances that have been made in both vineyard managment and technology - there are some serious highlights. I had real trouble finding them last year, but this year the clear and absolutely hands-down winner in terms of appelations is definitely POMEROL. I think Pomerol as an appellation (despite how tiny it is) has had an amazing run of vintages over the past 15 years. Call it Global Warming or whatever, but it has really been amazing. Top Vintages in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003 (clay-based only), 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010 within a 15-year span is quite legendary in the World of Wine...Arguably there was that other legendary quad as I have said before in 1947-1950 and if you expand and include 1945, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1959 then you again find that 15-year span with a huge number of successful vintages, which is why I am not sure that this has anything to do with Global Warming, rather a more cyclical thing happening, now 60-70 years after the last such cycle...see how everything moves in cycles?

Anyway, back to the fray and sure enough, the 1st Growths on the Left Bank or what has now officially been reduced from a G5 to a G4, given that there's no reason to taste and report on Chateau Latour since they're not going to be selling their wine En Primeur and this is about En Primeur only. Lafite, Mouton, Margaux and Haut Brion have made beyond draconian selections and a tiny amount of their production ended up in their Grands Vins, but they were able to preserve density in the wines with Haut Brion seemingly having succeeded quite well in that they harvest a bit earlier and in 2012 that meant avoiding the deluge which hit Bordeaux in mid-September. Up and down the Medoc there's green, weedy character in the wines, the likes of which we haven't really seen since 1997. This comes from those Chateaux that simply had to go out and pick their fruit before the rains really soaked into the roots of the vines and thereby would have bloated the grapes with water and caused dilution en masse. So what you have is a bunch of properties up and down the Medoc and including all kinds of Grands Crus up to 2nd growth who have this green character in their wines from having essentially picked too early. Some are nothing but thin wine with tannins, some are completely hollow in the middle, meaning you get a decent nose on the wine, but on the palate they are just awfully lacking in body and structure, as well as that density which you can really only get from crop thinning, vine-by-vine selection and other further draconian selection methods, but now you're talking about cost-per-bottle production of over 30 Euro and who else but the 1st Growths can afford that?

The second wines of the 1st growths show exactly where things go wrong in a vintage such as 2012. All of them have this completely hollow middle which was the part they had to sacrifice in order to put their name on their Grand Vin and it is telling that most of them sold of more than 50% of the crop in bulk and didn't even put it in the 2nd or 3rd wines. Margaux has the highest density of all of the 1st growths, Haut Brion has the best structure, Lafite has the best Color and perhaps nose and Mouton has the best fruit, but none of them have it all like in 09 or 10...so essentially these are (like last year) 90-93 point wines if we go by Bob's standards...

Naturally there were some other wines that stood out within their appellations and Pontet-Canet again comes to mind...seems Uncle Alfred simply cannot make a bad wine anymore and really has this operation cranking...too bad he's not in Saint Emilion or he would easily be in the top level of the first growths over there...speaking of Saint Emilion, I think one of the real highlights this vintage is Valandraud which has Pomerol'esque quality to it and the others in this category would be Beausejour-Duffau, Angelus, Ausone and Pavie. Suffice is to say that the new classification in Saint Emilion is entirely justified!

Now to Pomerol and this is definitely the appellation with the highest degree of success. Petrus, Le Pin, VCC, Trotanoy, L'Eglise Clinet are all wine of the vintage contenders, while you find lovely 2008 style wines with Conseillante, Evangile, Clinet, La Fleur Petrus and Le Gay as well as others. I would say that almost all wines from Pomerol can beat any wine from a number of other appellations, so that's where your shopping should be concentrated if you really must still participate in this dinosaur-fest called the En Primeurs...

I was asked a number of times what I'd be buying and I answered 1982 Mouton Rothschild every single time...it is currently selling for below the prices of the 1st Growths of 2009 and 2010, but it is now more than 30 years old and absolutely the perfection it always has been, so that's exactly what we should be buying and drinking right now...this of course alludes to the fact that there really is no compelling reason to buy these wines En Primeur anymore, mainly because none of the Chateaux need money the way they used to when this system was invented to begin with!

Anyway, even last year I went through the whole tasting and posted a massve report and then when the prices came out I posted them in good faith and fashion as I always like to do, but this year I am just not going to bother, because last year nobody bought anything, with very few exceptions and this year nobody will buy anything again with few exceptions, so really, what's the point? I'll probably go ahead and list the prices when they come out of only the wines that I think are worth looking at for your 2025 shopping spree, but other than that, who cares?

I am hopeful after discussing this with the 1st Growths, that they will come out with pricing around 200 Euro to the Negociants, meaning below 250 Euro from the Negociants to the trade and therefore around 280-300 to the consumers or just under $400 in the US, which is alright, while not really great considering again that you can easily find 1st growths in the market of much better vintages that now sell for below $400 per bottle, especially in the auctions...that is especially true for Mouton and Haut Brion of course, while less so with Margaux, Latour and then Lafite on top of the food chain (still)...

Anyway folks, there you have it, so you'll hear from me again when certain prices come out for the handful of wines that I want to be looking at..."

[jmccready]

Very helpfull, thanks JM

[OrlandoRobert]

We need a breather from all the solid vintages we have had!

[JonB]

Interesting synopsis of 2012. Given the producer's tendency to try to generally continue price increase trajectory (with some reductions for off vintages) I agree that this is a vintage to largely ignore the en primeur market, and that it will be priced so expensive relative to the quality that U.S. merchants will continue to cut back on Bordeaux commitments.

I've only purchased a case or 2 of deeply discounted 2011s.

We seem to be in a cycle where prices continue to be pushed up beyond the demand, and so they are temporary storing the production hoping for a better market in the future, or selling the wine through discount channels (hypermarkets, gray market).

[MatthewB]

Any chance you have Gil's coverage on the '11s? That is our anniversary year and I'm trying to decide if BDX is the way to go for a couple cases, or a different region, even though most had a tough years except Sauternes.

[DavidG]

It's probably archived somewhere on the Squires board Matthew, likely strung out over dozens of posts over the several months of the en primeur campaign last spring.