Climens and Guiraud push on with 2012

Château Climens and Château Guiraud are to push on with production of a 2012 vintage despite a number of high profile producers in Sauternes pulling the plug on the vintage.

Berenice Lurton of Château Climens is optimistic about the quality of her 2012 vintage

“Yquem’s decision not to release a 2012 vintage is terrible for us as it’s produced a buzz that the vintage is bad across the board, which is not true,” Berenice Lurton, owner and manager of Château Climens in Barsac told the drinks business.

“Yquem is such an iconic estate, the move not to release is leading people to make generalisations about the vintage. It’s very important that people know there are quality sweet wines to be found in 2012,” she added.

Lurton believes her biodynamic approach helped her during the tough growing season.

“We gained more than we lost with biodynamics last year and are very happy with the result. Our grapes managed to withstand the rains and we had a successful second picking,” she said, though revealed that yields were down on 2011 to 10hl/ha.

The first classified sweet wine estate in Bordeaux to go biodynamic, with the assistance of Jean-Michel and Corinne Comme, who also consult for biodynamic fifth growth Château Pontet-Canet, Climens is aiming to be certified organic this year and biodynamic in 2014.

“I believe passionately that biodynamics is the right way for us to go and it is helping to shine a light on us.

“We want to go back to our roots at Climens and help our wines find their own balance. Biodynamics brings life and vibrancy to the wines,” Lurton told db.

Bottles of Château Guiraud

Over at Château Guiraud in Sauternes, winemaker Xavier Planty said the decision to go ahead and make a grand vin in 2012 was not easy.

“Our yields are down 90% on 2011, so we’ll only be releasing around 700 cases and we’re not sure if we’re going to release en primeur.

“I’m happy with what I did make but the picking cost was €8-10 a bottle,” he told db.

Like Lurton, Planty is also perplexed by Yquem’s decision to abandon the vintage.

“I don’t understand why they’re not making any wine. I don’t think the decision was simply quality driven, there were commercial concerns involved,” he said.

Last December, LVMH-owned Château d’Yquem was the first estate to announce that it would not be producing a 2012 vintage due to “insufficient” quality.

“A brand such as Yquem must know when not to make a vintage. For the sake of the brand’s image and place in history, it’s reasonable to not make a 2012,” Yquem’s director Pierre Lurton said at the time of the announcement.

However, Lurton’s cousin Berenice believes Yquem could have produced a 2012 vintage.

“They could have produced a tiny vintage if they’d wanted to. It’s a big estate, so I’m surprised they feel they couldn’t have made anything at all of quality,” she said.

Along with Yquem, Rieussec, Raymond Lafon and Suduiraut will also not be releasing a 2012 vintage, though the latter will release second wine Lions de Suduiraut, a lighter style at a quarter of the price of Suduiraut.

Those who have chosen not to produce a grand vin in 2012 have cited a lack of concentration as the main issue.