2010 White Bordeaux

We thought 2005 to be a landmark wine vintage, unlikely to be matched for a generation, then along came 2009 to rival and in some cases surpass it. A week of wine tasting in Bordeaux leads me to believe that 2010 may well overtake them both, and I cannot recall a more thrilling week’s tasting in terms of the quality of the wines.

Bordeaux 2010 - White Wines
Conditions were excellent for the production of good dry whites but I confess to being slightly disappointed overall. Many wines have fresh, semi-tropical aromas, some tending even toward the exotic, but lack precision and definition on the palate.

The top estates have avoided this feature and have made stunning wines, but the vintage overall falls short of the legendary 2007 status.

In Sauternes there was, mercifully, a harvest of greater volume than normal; thick skins made it difficult for botrytis to take hold until well into the autumn, and when it did come into play it did not create wines with the complexity of 2001 or the richness of 2007.

Instead, the acidity mentioned above has imbued the wines with a delicious freshness, so that they possess a clean, pure, aromatic sweetness with no cloying element. The 1988 wine vintage comes to mind as a possible comparison.

Alun Griffiths MW
Wine Buying Director


Read the report on the red Bordeaux wines for the 2010 vintage here 

Bordeaux 2010 En Primeur - Reports & Recommendations

• Vintage Overview
• Bordeaux 2010 En Primeur Tastings - Video Reports 
• Photogallery from the En Primeur Tastings
• Vintage Reports by The Wine Spectator