- With the recent claret vintage series I am collecting up my thoughts on several vintages, based on my own experiences and my own impressions.
- In these write-ups I am not including my thoughts on the sweet wines of Sauternes & Barsac, nor the dry white wines, which are concentrated in the Graves/Pessac region.
- In no way are my notes complete, and neither are they designed to compete with those of professional wine writers.
- Where there are significant gaps in my knowledge, for example on the 1970s vintages, I draw on what I consider to be reliable sources.
- I have been lucky enough to drink and accumulate fine Bordeaux from many vintages, and this series attempts to amalgamate these notes, as much for my own benefit as anyone else's.
- The focus here is on the most renowned classed growths in Bordeaux, rather than the lesser known appellations where hidden gems may lie; I make no apology for this.
- I have a lot of experience drinking many wines in the vintages of the 1980s, and I have some experience of drinking wines in the 1970s and 1990s vintages, which I will share.
- Beyond 1996 my expertise becomes more limited, merely because I have yet to try many of these wines even if I may own them. So I may just jot down early thoughts on these, lumped together.
- Related to this point, I have quite strong and conservative views on drinking windows. Even though wine is fashioned to be more accessible these days, a lot of Bordeaux is drunk too young in my opinion.
- For example many of the classed growths in the 1995 and 1996 vintages are not fully ready to drink yet. However, I do own copious quantities of these two vintages, and I will write separate pieces on each.
- Likewise my experience of 1970s Bordeaux is quite patchy, not least because it was a difficult decade and I have not been actively seeking out these wines.
- I will write a separate piece on the fascinating 1978 vintage, but I will lump together 1975/76 and 1970/71, even though these consecutive vintages are quite different in character.
- I will not write about the difficult and generally unsuccessful vintages of 1972, '73, '74, '77, '80, '84, '87, '91, '92 or '93.
- My overall vintage assessment is as follows: * poor; ** average; *** good; **** excellent; ***** outstanding.
- I make no claims for accuracy, fairness or consistency, and readily concede that my assessments are as subjective as they are objective.
- Thoughts and comments most welcome.
CFdB
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