Bordeaux 2014: The Southwold Tasting

BY NEAL MARTIN | MARCH 27, 2018

Southwold, in case you are wondering, is a picturesque Suffolk coastal town famed for its pebble beaches, pastel-hued beach-huts, quaint shops and most importantly, the Adnams pubs serving some of the finest ale known to mankind. It is a summer tourist magnet. Yet, it is during winter, when leaden skies meet leaden North Sea and both beach and streets lie deserted, that Southwold is at its most poetically beautiful. For many Januaries it was the venue for an annual Bordeaux tasting, to my mind the only one whereby practically all the major châteaux donate bottles for blind comparison. I use the past tense, for recently the tasting had to relocate from Southwold, but the name and its ethos continue to thrive. The tasting has a long and colourful history; one that I might retell in a separate article, suffice to say that in its first incarnation it was reserved for merchants invited by its founder, Clive Coates. I myself have participated since 2007 when journalists were first granted seats at the table, if I recall, Jancis Robinson, Steven Spurrier and yours truly, although it does remain a trade and not scribe-orientated fixture. What I have learned during these tastings is immeasurable and the stories heard from a gaggle of most experiences sages in the world, unprintable.

I took this picture in 2010. It captures the calming desolateness of Southwold beach on a bitterly cold January. Beach huts still look pretty though. 

The group gathers to assess a vintage that is always four years earlier, so this year the 2014s were under scrutiny. For this writer, it is a vital tasting, which is why I have only missed one-and-a-half in 11 years (the half when I had to leave midway through the flight of 2003 Saint Juliens...long story.) Whilst the en primeur “circus” witnesses legions of journalists descending to dish out scores and basically gift Bordeaux free press for the coming primeur campaign, how many tasters will sit down later and redo the exercise blind and question those original assessments of unfinished samples? Like any blind tasting, amongst the majority of bottles that thankfully vindicate your initial views, there are always going to be anomalies, incomprehensible scores that defy form and mock your pearls of wisdom. This occasion is no different. Derided wines perform well while previously fêted wines fluff their lines on stage and leave you scratching your head. It happens. However, I have always found that readers appreciate the Southwold reports because they are conducted single blind, insofar that we have prior knowledge of the flight but no idea of order. I will continue to publish them here on Vinous as part of our expanded Bordeaux coverage and who knows, uncover wines that may well have only blossomed after a year or two in bottle. That also happens. So, for now, let us recap the growing season.

The 2014 Growing Season

The year began wet and warm, in fact the warmest for some 24 years, and this was crucial in terms of replenishing the water table after a succession of dry seasons. Temperatures rarely dipped below freezing. March was warm, and this would have prompted an early budding had the vines not been dissuaded by cold night temperatures. Buds finally broke around mid-March, approximately a fortnight earlier than average. Unlike 2017, a warm and dry April precluded frost damage. Inclement weather towards the end of April saw some white varieties affected with some filage en vrille, whereby the vine expends energy producing tendrils instead of bunches. May was cool and damp and this caused some coulure and millerandage as well as diluting mineral uptake, though fortunately flowering passed evenly and quickly over a week in early June. 

Mi-floraison was around ten days earlier than in 2013 and there followed two heat spikes on 21 June and 17 July that caused some grillure, especially towards the eastern flank of Saint-Émilion. This aside, June was relatively benign and raised hopes for a growing season worth getting excited about. Alas, July was cooler than expected insofar that temperatures only exceeded 30° Celsius on three occasions and never in August. The late Prof. Denis Dubourdieu’s report noted that average temperatures were 5.8° Celsius below the 1981 to 2010 average in July and 2.2° Celsius below average in August, along with 12% less sunlight hours. Therefore, the vine refocused its energy upon foliage to increase photosynthesis instead of bunches, hence the protracted véraison. In some localities véraison began in mid-July and in others it did not start until the end of August thanks to the cool temperatures, lack of diurnal temperature variation and moisture levels. Bunches began to show uneven ripeness levels that obliged constant work in the vineyard to thin out obvious under-ripeness. It should also be noted that Saint-Émilion and Margaux suffered more rainfall than either Saint-Julien or Saint-Estèphe. To add to their woes, there were the constant lurking threats of oïdium and an outbreak of cicadelles to make vineyard work “uncomfortable”. By the end of August hopes had been dashed. I still recall one winemaker who confessed that they thought 2014 would end up even worse than 2013. 

The Indian summer saved the day as a high-pressure system squatted over Europe and warded off the low depressions that might have come in from the Atlantic. Temperatures in September were 27.8° Celsius above average with 27% more sunlight hours than August. Despite outbreaks of thunderstorms that affected Saint-Émilion, September was a perfect month and it verged on excessive as high temperatures caused some berries to shrivel. These had to be discarded before entering the vat, although at least these high temperatures compensated for the lack of concentration earlier that summer. The harvest kicked off around 3 September with the dry whites as usual under dry conditions. The Merlot started coming in around 22 September after potential alcohol levels rocketed by almost a degree per week. The clement conditions enabled vineyard managers to drag out the growing season, most of the Cabernets was picked in an October that was warmer than usual and with only 20mm of rainfall. The berries were found to be small and concentrated. In Sauternes, the Indian summer was a mixed blessing since it precluded the onset of pourriture noble, at least until an outbreak of rain in October caused an explosion of botrytis that necessitated almost block picking rather than the piecemeal tries through the vineyard. They had to be careful since some chef de culture noticed some bouïroc or sour rot in a small number of bunches, but finally they were able to crop fruit that would create very fine sweet wines.