Bordeaux 2010: The Sweet Wines

"The main difference in the sweet wines between 2010 and 2009 is that 2010 had very cool temperatures in August and September, thereby preserving freshness and overall acidity in the wines," said Xavier Planty, general manager and co-owner of Château Guiraud. "This characteristic is further accentuated in those wines that have more of a sauvignon presence." Added Pierre Lurton of Château d'Yquem: "I particularly like the fact that there is a lot more botrytis in 2010 than people realize."

Cool spring temperatures got the vines off to a late start and they remained behind schedule during the flowering and for the rest of the growth cycle. A period of heavy rain in mid-June hampered the fruitfulness of the vines and reduced sauvignon blanc yields in particular. Large diurnal temperature variations in September enabled the grapes to retain high acidity, which is necessary to prevent sweet wines from cloying. On the other hand, the very warm and dry conditions that held through much of the summer (July especially; August was slightly cooler than average) led to very healthy, thick-skinned grapes that did not make life easy for Botrytis cinerea, the fungus also known as noble rot that adds an extra dimension to the world's best sweet wines.