Bordeaux 2008 Wine Vintage Review

There is no doubt about it – we came away from a week’s tasting in Bordeaux having found many more wines of exciting quality than we expect after the indifferent weather of much of the summer. Locals have a saying to cover the situation if August is really fine (‘août fait le mout’) and another if it is not (‘June makes the quantity, September makes the quality’) but this year the key months were pushed back: July was the least bad of the summer months, while the vintage took place almost entirely in October, in good weather conditions for the most part. By chance the last few ‘8’ vintages – 1978, 1988, 1998 – have all been late harvests and have all delivered pretty good wines.

Maybe, in retrospect, we have overplayed the poor quality of the summer, because there was never a glorious stretch of holiday weather in the high summer months. But in fact July was drier than usual, sunnier than usual, but just not especially warm. August was indeed a touch cooler and grayer than normal and a little wetter, but warm, dry weather in September and October truly saved the day. For most, the harvest started and ended later than ever before with many properties picking as late as 18th October.

The lateness of the vintage meant the grapes were allowed to ripen slowly yet surely. This unusual length of the ripening season, or long ‘hang time’ as our Californian cousins would refer to it, resulted in grapes with relatively high sugar levels, red or black fruit with no trace of green, and a silkiness to the tannins which were abundant but not intrusive; all that suggests a fine vintage. The one unexpected feature was the acidity, quite prominent in the taste; a result of the slow ripening process and which makes this vintage quite unlike anything we have seen before.

Success is not universal. Some minor players have made lean and dilute wines; some top names left us underwhelmed. Merlot flourished on the Right Bank, but was less convincing in the Médoc where Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot excelled, but Cabernet Franc was weak. But more often than not we came away from a château (we like to taste at the property as much as possible) with a feeling that the job had been well done, and that we could enthuse about the quality of the wine, even if market conditions might make selling it problematic.

Clearly the most important features were vineyard husbandry and especially yield. Nobody should have made big volumes after difficult weather conditions at the flowering, preceded in some spots by frost in April and hail in May, but those who ended up with yields north of 55 hl/ha were unlikely to succeed. On the other hand, why was modest Ch. d’Angludet so outstanding? Because the Sichel team had thinned the crop not once but twice, fearing a potential inability to ripen the crop in such a late season, so that in the end they brought in only 30 hl/ha, but of superb quality.

View Berrys' highest-rated wines of the vintage

Commune Overview

St Estèphe
Starting primeur week in the north of the Médoc is a tough call on the tastebuds, and also perhaps harsh on St Estèphe’s chance to shine, since at this point the rhythm of the new vintage is not yet apparent. The plump fruit apparent elsewhere rarely shone through in St Estèphe. There may be some sleepers here though which will show better with further time in cask.

Pauillac
We began to find our rhythm and the sense of the vintage as we worked our way through Pauillac. The most classical of communes produced a significant proportion of the Left Bank’s successes, the opening charm continuing right across the palate to ripe tannins at the end. There are successes at all price points, from Haut-Bages Libéral to Latour, by way of Lynch Bages.

St Julien
The success rate was nearly as consistent in St Julien as in Pauillac, with many châteaux making convincing arguments for selection if the prices are right. There is evident power among all the Léovilles and a superb precision from the whole Ducru stable, while Beychevelle shows elegance and persistence. Fruit is apparent throughout the commune.

Margaux
Here the story was much more complicated, with some incidence of frost in April and hail in May affecting the size of the crop. We found several striking wines (d’Angludet, Palmer, Giscours) as well as some notable disappointments. Perhaps some châteaux here depend too much on Merlot which was less exciting.

Pessac-Léognan
We tend not to taste quite so widely in this part of the world, but the four leading players whose wines we tasted all excelled. Although this appellation is normally one of the first to pick, the harvest was the latest on record for many chateaux, yet with excellent results. Domaine de Chevalier, Haut-Bailly, La Mission Haut Brion and Haut Brion are all very fine. The dry white wines are attractive but cannot match the sublime 2007s which are well worth another look.

St Emilion and Pomerol
As in Pessac-Léognan, we stuck to our favourites and came out with an impressive success ratio. Here there is a plumpness and succulence to the wines which make them immediately attractive. Indeed the volume of fruit indicates a vintage of significant quality, and they should last very well. Worth investigating.

Sauternes
2008 was an attractive vintage for Sauternes, but less compelling than 2007. Picking continued right through into the third week in November, but the best juice came from late September and early October – not enough of it, alas, for a bumper crop.