“Exotic” vintage excites Bordeaux chateaux

He joins other Bordeaux winemakers from both left and right bank châteaux who are excited by the 2009 harvest’s high fruit concentration, good levels of acidity and alcohol. 

“It was an amazing vintage and we’ve just been cheering the end of the harvest,” said Lurton. “We picked Merlot early because it’s rich and elegant and we picked late for Cabernet Franc, which had elegance and finesse. 

“I think we are in between an exotic and an outstanding vintage,” he concluded.

Lurton, who manages Château d’Yquem, also confirmed that the harvest this year was going well for its dessert wine.

At Château Brown in Pessac-Leognan, the early October sun beamed down on the final picking day for Merlot grapes so winemaker Jean-Christophe Mau left his Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to ripen a few days longer. 

The dynamic young director of Château Brown, famous for harvesting late, said a sun-filled September had allowed him to take the risk and wait for a higher concentration of fruit. 

“My father sent me an email yesterday and said we will never see a September like this in 2009. It may be too early to tell but having just one day of rain in September is exceptional,” said Mau, whose father Jean-François directed Yvon Mau before it merged with Friexenet in 2001.

Jean Gautreau, the highly-respected owner of Château Sociando-Mallett, just north of Saint-Estèphe, said fruit this year was pure and fresh but still chose to keep yields lower than he could have to maintain the fruit concentration and acidity. This approach has made 82-year-old Gautreau’s wines so famous that despite being an unclassed château, Sociando-Mallett’s wines sell out every vintage. 

Finally, despite fears that May’s hailstorms might have reduced yields this year, quantities are higher than 2008.

Bernadette Costello, reporting from Bordeaux, 15.10.09