The Very Good Vintage of 2006 Bordeaux by Robert Parker

With the global economic climate meltdown and consumer confidence at historic lows, it will be hard to predict where prices might fall for recent vintages of Bordeaux. The great vintage of 2005 is already showing considerable price declines, and a vintage that is certainly destined to live in its shadow, 2006, is like to fall even more. Since no one predicted the global nature and depth of this historic economic morass, I find it impossible to guess where prices will end up with the following wines, but I have listed the retail prices garnered from a half-dozen of the best Bordeaux wine merchants in the country and averaged them out. I suspect deals can be negotiated rather easily.

As reported when I first tasted the 2006s from barrel, there are many fine wines, especially from the top terroirs, but also from the over-achieving smaller estates that continue to push the envelope and try to undermine the image that Bordeaux is only about limited, very expensive wines from historic classifications. In terms of the weather, June and July were very hot months, well above average in temperature, especially July, which was as torrid as the worst months of the catastrophic heat of 2003's summer. However, the difference was that August came in cool and generally rainy, and by the end of the month, the torrid heat returned, causing the potential for rampant rot and mold in the vineyards.

The serious estates were on top of the problem, and did plenty of leaf pulling and pruning out bunches, worried about what September would bring. The first two weeks of September remained hot, creating more worries, but then substantial rain fell across the region over the following two weeks. Some of the Pomerol estates got much of their harvest in before the heaviest of rains, but the question of whether the crop was fully ripe seems to be an issue. The Cabernet Franc on the Right Bank was generally picked during the last ten days of September, during the intermittent rains, and the Cabernet Sauvignon of the Médoc was mostly harvested the first two weeks of October. Looking overall at the average statistics for the critical growing season, July was much hotter than normal, August only 1.6 degrees Centigrade below normal, but overall, the four months of June, July, September, and October actually averaged 3 degrees Centigrade above normal.

Precipitation was also interesting. The average rainfall for the seven months of the so-called growing season from April through October is 979 millimetres (about 37.5 inches). In 2006, it was 901 millimetres (36 inches), so in short, it was a drier than average year. Perhaps this explains the overall concentration and modestly high alcohols in the 2006s, although the alcohol as well as concentration are nowhere near the levels achieved by top châteaux in the prodigious 2005 harvest.

The best wines in 2006 tend to be very well-balanced and, while some are forward, others require some patience, given their tannic structures. By and large, this will not be an exceptionally long-lived vintage, but for the top wines, the longevity will certainly be 15-25 years, which should be more than adequate for most readers. This is also an excellent vintage for the dry whites, which were largely harvested between the end of August and the first few weeks of September, before the heaviest rains fell. Barsac and Sauternes have turned out to be very good rather than exceptional.

As far as trying to handicap this vintage in terms of what appellations did best, it is one where the viticultural work in the vineyards and the selection process at the château level seem to have dictated how successful properties were. By and large, it would appear that St.-Emilion, after having probably the greatest vintage I have ever tasted for that appellation, 2005, has more hit-or-miss wines than elsewhere. I had expected Pomerol to be more consistent, but that didn’t prove to be the case in tasting from bottle. Certainly the Graves region acquitted itself exceptionally well, and may be the sweet spot of the vintage. In the Médoc, it’s the same old story – the most seriously-run châteaux, who do extensive labour-intensive work in the vineyards and make severe draconian selections in the wine cellars, have fashioned impeccably fine wines.

This will be a vintage that importers, wholesalers, and retailers will likely be aggressively discounting because of the turbulent world economy, so be prepared for some great bargains. If they love Bordeaux, consumers should be able to take a position on the finest 2006s. These wines will never be favourites of the small percentage of speculators of Bordeaux, but they will be delicious wines for drinking over the next two decades – where chosen wisely.

~ Sourced from www.wallywine.com