A Century of Bordeaux: The Nines

BY NEAL MARTIN | SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Last year, Vinous published “A Century of Bordeaux”, essentially a pimped-up version of the common-or-garden “Ten Years On” Bordeaux report expanded to include decennial overviews stretching all the way back to 1918. It was intended as an annual feature, and naturally I looked forward to tasting and writing the follow-up, ingeniously titled “A Century of Bordeaux: The Nines.” Alas, my plans were nixed by a bit of unforeseen surgery that precluded traveling, as well as the tastings that are sources of ancient bottles and attendant notes.

But I am not defeated that easily. Firstly, a couple of malfunctioning arteries did not stop my attending a comprehensive blind tasting of 2009s in London last February (notes already published by Vinous). Conveniently, after one of those sessions, we convened at the excellent Hatched restaurant in Clapham for a 1989-themed dinner that included some wonderful bottles. Furthermore, in a rare instance of fortuitous forward planning, when touring châteaux to taste 2016s in bottle last December, at my request practically every property opened their 1989 and 1999, not least because winemakers wanted to taste those vintages themselves.

Consequently, I ended up with a brace of tasting notes that, while not quite as comprehensive as originally intended, furnishes readers with over 100 reviews focused on two contrasting vintages. These are in addition to various verticals already published on Vinous in recent months, just in case you were wondering about glaring omissions such as Brane-Cantenac, Petrus or Lafite-Rothschild. As the icing on the cake, I augmented these notes with a smattering of numerically themed older vintages back to 1929. While I am in possession of a note from 1919, that is earmarked for another forthcoming vertical, so I substituted the only 1899 I have ever tasted. 

Twenty Years On: 1999

Let us begin with Prince’s favorite year, 1999. In retrospect it seems an innocent period in history compared to today’s turbulent times. It was the calm before the storm. Mobile phones and the internet were rapidly becoming essential parts of everyday lives as we bought Nokia flip phones and signed up for AOL, crossing our fingers that the Y2K bug was not the end of the world. That year, Bill Clinton was acquitted and Vladimir Putin became the Russian president. Tony Blair was still popular. A pigtailed Britney Spears danced suggestively through the locker room, pleading to be hit one more time, although Napster meant you no longer had to buy the music from Woolworths or Tower Records. The Matrix was the big summer draw and children lapped up J.K. Rowling’s Prisoner of Azkaban as Harry Potter became a worldwide phenomenon. Me? I was living in a one-bedroom flat in Crystal Palace and working for a Japanese wine importer, just commencing my WSET diploma. I tasted the Bordeaux 1999s from barrel the following spring. Perhaps it says something about their impact that I hold no vivid recollections about that particular en primeur... or it could just be my old age.

Nineteen ninety-nine is a vintage that has slipped between the cracks, insofar as the wines were neither good nor bad enough to stick in the forefront of our collective memory. This renders them ripe for reevaluation. Quality was sufficiently good that many of the top names should continue drinking well, though the wines have not attracted speculation from investors and so market prices have remained comparatively modest.

Growing Season

After an unremarkable March, April was wet but warmed up toward the end. Growth was quite precocious and the vines flowered during a window of hot, dry days between May 23 and June 1. The Merlot flowered rapidly and yields were potentially high. Though June and July were hot, the Cabernets lagged behind. Storms thundered across the region on August 3, 6 and 7 and deluged the region with up to three inches of rain; however, between mid-August and mid-September, the weather turned warm and conditions appeared ideal for harvest. Things started to go awry on September 5, when severe hailstorms decimated localized parts of Saint-Émilion around Canon, Angélus and Clos-Fourtet. Then 100mm of rain fell on a soggy September 20 and, facing potential dilution, châteaux had to practice severe selection and reduce the must-to-juice ratio before fermentation. Most of the crop was picked between September 12 and October 5, the best wines tending to be those whose bunches were safely in before September 20. In a cruel twist of fate, a fortnight of clement weather settled in from October 5. The crop was 5% larger than in 1998, though the combination of green harvesting and declassification at harvest served to regulate yields.