Beyond 1996 my knowledge and experience
is a bit sketchier than for the vintages I have written about in detail, i.e.,
1978 to 1996, excluding a few less successful vintages, plus less detailed write
ups on 1970 & 1971 and 1975 & 1976.
1997
Overall vintage rating ***
This rating may be conservative.
Most 1997s I have tried have been easily accessible, easy drinking wines,
though the first growths and their equivalents are outstanding. I tried Latour this year and it was very
impressive, and still seemed to have its best years ahead of it. When I tried
it with the three other Medoc first growths in 2001 it was, however, the least
impressive of the bunch. The pick was Mouton Rothschild which was gorgeous, but
Margaux and Lafite are special too. I tried Lafite about five years ago and it
was still pretty tight. Haut-Brion was quite tight, tried about the same time,
and probably on a par with Latour. I tried Cheval Blanc a couple of years ago and as with the 1995 and
1996 it really is a splendid wine. It probably challenges Mouton for wine of
the vintage. I would love to own some of both.
The two outstanding wines, or
values, in this vintage are Pichon Baron, which is a fabulous ‘Englishman’s
luncheon claret’ which was very accessible from a young age, and the Cru
Bourgeois Chateau Poujeaux, which made a delicious claret several levels above
its station in 1997. Beyond that my exposure to 1997 has not been particularly prolific. I had a so-so bottle of Montrose a few weeks ago because it was served far too warm.
I didn’t buy this vintage because ludicrously prices were higher than for the 1996s.
Consequently the wines didn’t sell. A couple of years later prices were slashed,
in some cases by more than 50%, and these were bargains were worth snapping up –
stuff like Ducru 1997 for about £200ib – but I missed out. The only 1997s I own are cases of Lafite, Haut-Bion
and Yquem, for my daughter Josephine, her birth year, and the odd bottle of
Poujeaux.
Favourite clarets in 1997: Poujeaux, Pichon-Baron, Mouton-Rothschild, Cheval Blanc
1998
Overall vintage rating ****
Within that overall rating it is
three stars for the Medoc and four/five stars for Pessac Leognan and five stars
for the right bank. I own a lot of 1998 Bordeaux, but I have drunk very little
of it, apart from the odd taste here or there. In the Medoc I have all four
first growths, in Pessac a total of seven cases and six cases of right banks,
all focussed at the top end. I have tried all the first growths, and they
should develop well, but it won’t be a great vintage like 1995 or 1996 for the
firsts. However Mouton and Lafite are very strong in 1998. Beneath first growth level, little has impressed me in the Medoc. Just lots of average, not particularly interesting wines. I invested in a lot
of Haut-Brion, a wine which has a bright future but for now is still ferociously
tannic. For current drinking Haut-Bailly is a very good.
On the right bank I recently
tried Figeac, which is becoming sublime as it starts to enter into secondary development.
Clos De L‘Oratoire is a modern, albeit hard wine, I don’t get on with. I have
relegated it to the back of the cellar or earmarked them to give away. Tertre-Roteboeuf
is a sex bomb, and am going to release my case of this at year end. I also look
forward to broaching cases of Cheval Blanc (no hurry) and Belair. The latter I tried
recently, and it is a lovely old style St-Emilion. In Pomerol I own quite a lot
of VCC, which is nowhere near ready, and a bit of Le Pin and some Certan De May. Not sure whether to
sell or drink...Overall I am pretty happy to be fully invested in these 1998s.
They are after all 15 years old now so I won’t have to wait too much longer.
Favourite clarets in 1998: Mouton-Rothshild, Figeac, Belair, Tetre Roteboeuf
1999
Overall vintage rating ***1/2
My perception is that 1999 is
probably a hypothetical blend of the previous two vintages, but in truth I
haven’t drunk all that many 1999s, and I don’t own many either, as I was starting to
wind down my buying in the year 2000. For some reason I went very long of Cheval
Blanc in 1999, and I have two cases plus a case of Petit Cheval, which I have started to broach and is in a good place (but it is not profound). Cheval Blanc itself should turn out just
fine, but it still needs a bit more time. Latour, which I also own, needs quite
a lot more time. Other than those I own small quantities of exotic right banks,
Lafleur and Le Pin. The latter I have tried twice and it is spectacular, and
probably walks away with the wine of the vintage moniker.
Probably its most serious
challengers are Mouton, only sipped once, but gorgeous, and Chateau
Palmer, which really is a vin de garde and classic Palmer.
Happily I own a case of this. But it needs a lot of time. Chateau Margaux,
which I have also sipped, is also right up there, probably in the top five or
so wines. Otherwise I have been somewhat underwhelmed by other 1999s I have
tried, similar to the 1998 Medocs. Leoville-Lascases, for example is atypically lightweight, but still
quite tasty. La Mission Haut-Brion is quite a serious wine, but still tightly
wound and not one to rush out and buy. Otherwise there are a lot of somewhat
indifferent wines in no man’s land: respectable clarets, which are drinking,
but with little personality or excitement.
Favourite clarets in 1999: Mouton, Palmer, Le Pin
2000
Overall vintage rating ***(**)
I have long harboured serious
doubts about this vintage, mainly because I am contrarian by nature, and I
suspected that a lot of people were sucked in by the hype. I was also alarmed
at how ‘new worldy’ some of these wines tasted before they shut down, Pichon
Baron and Margaux being two examples. At our Chateau Margaux vertical in NYC in
2006 the Margaux 2000 tasted like a Napa Valley wine. And shut down they did, and very hard. Most of
the top 2000s I have tried are still very closed. Chateau Palmer, tried recently, displayed a gorgeous Palmer nose but the
palate is very tannic and austere. Lesser wines like Citran, Batailly, a Gaffaliere and Domaine De Chevalier, have abrasive tannins and are really hard work and unpleasant to drink right now.
However I was heartened to taste
Pichon Baron again, which has emerged on the other side, as it were, as a
classic, structured claret, with all the ingredients to evolve into a great
wine. So in hindsight I think a lot of these wines, once they shed their puppy
fat, shut down hard, but will come good. Eventually. But a lot of patience will be required
with this vintage. A lot. Hence the
***(**) rating: this vintage is not drinking anywhere near its potential. I
have a fairly eclectic mix of 2000 Bordeaux, but when it came to the first
growths or their equivalents, I really baulked at the prices and aimed a bit
lower. But I generally have first growths and by the bottle or three/six packs and
cases of wine like Montrose, Beychevelle, Ducru Beaucaillou, La Tour Haut-Brion, Clos Fourtet and VCC.
Favourite clarets in 2000: Pichon-Baron, Vieux Chateau Certan
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