2007 Bordeaux : Don't Hate Me Because I'm Overpriced

The 2007s are generally attractive, elegantly styled wines that are true to their sites but will offer the advantage of early drinking owing to their relatively easygoing structures. Very few of them are too tough or tannic to taste today, and it’s only the exceptionally backward wine that will need more than seven or eight years of cellaring before approaching maturity. That is not to say that the vintage’s best examples don’t have the stuffing and balance to offer 15 to 20 years of pleasure. This is hardly an off vintage, even if it could have turned out so much better.

A freakishly hot April (it was literally the warmest month of the growing season until September) led to a very early flowering, but inconsistent and often rainy weather during the second half of May and early June resulted in some coulure and set the stage for irregular ripening of the fruit. It also limited the size of the crop. The summer was then cool and dreary straight through the end of August. The most quality-conscious estates had previously thinned their crops and eliminated bunches that had been affected by mildew; now they green harvested to remove the bunches that were last to go through veraison, in the hope of reducing the range of fruit ripeness at harvest-time. In the end, those estates that did not continue to reduce crop levels through the summer were much less likely to get their fruit ripe by the end of the season.

Significant rainfall during the last third of August triggered a wide outbreak of rot and at the beginning of September the fruit looked terrible. But the skies cleared on the 30th, and, miraculously, September and early October offered mostly sunny weather. Best of all, a dry northeast breeze blew through most of September, helping to dry up incipient rot and allowing most châteaux to let their fruit hang for better ripeness. In the end, the luckiest properties were able to pick at leisure, while others had no choice but to bring in their fruit before it was really ready. Many small estates on the Right Bank, and not just those in the high-rent neighborhoods of Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, were able to pick with great precision. And careful harvesting was called for, as fruit picked too early lacked phenolic ripeness, while merlot brought in too late lacked verve and personality. In the Médoc, some fruit had to be harvested before it was properly ripe, but many of the best estates picked slowly over an extended period.

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Two thousand seven is an ideal vintage for Bordeaux lovers who bemoan what has happened to their favorite category of wine as a result of global warming and more extractive modern-day winemaking