Rockeries in
Living Rooms: 1988 vs. 1989 Bordeaux

BY NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;JULY 02, 2024A
golden glow surrounds my childhood memories of 1988 and 1989. I had the comfort
of living in my parents’ semi-detached in Leigh-on-Sea with all the attendant five-star
hotel service: dad’s mug of tea in the morning, mum slipping a hot water bottle
under the duvet on cold nights. Once the front door was closed behind me,
however, I embarked upon the kind of teenage rebellion that years later, I
regaled to my own daughters in a futile effort to demonstrate “cool dad”
credentials, only to spend sleepless nights fretting they might be up to the
same treacherous acts of hedonism. In those years, practically every night was
spent gallivanting about in crowded smoke-filled bars, nightclubs with names
like Penthouse or the notorious den of iniquity, The Pink Toothbrush. Then,
there were naïve teens who foolishly decided to enhance classroom popularity by
hosting a house party when equally naïve mum and dad went on a weekend break.
Oh dear. Some of these parties have passed into folklore. My personal favorite
is the one where some lads rebuilt the garden rockery in the living room:
boulders, soil, plants and gnomes. I'm not sure whether our host’s parents
appreciated this upon their return, not that anyone had a clue who the host
actually was. This period marked my first foray into DJing. The music was
Public Enemy, Prince, INXS, Inner City and The Cure. Wine? It only existed
either for its intoxicating purposes or the Liebfraumilch that chaperoned the
Sunday roast and left a sugary aftertaste that was gone by around Wednesday. &nbsp;

I was
oblivious to the fact that Bordeaux was finishing a decade that saw the region enter
the modern age, a region carried on a tide of benevolent vintages. Wineries had
seen burgeoning demand for Claret, and attendant increased prices that gave
them income to invest and update wineries, some of which were unchanged since
the war. Whereas the 1982 vintage could not really take advantage of that flush
of income, the triumvirate that finished the decade certainly could. Add to the
mix the rise of Robert Parker, who, whatever your opinion of his palate, was a
lodestar that incentivized winemakers to improve quality. No wonder those
vintages are now a treasure trove for wine lovers. Of the three that ended the
decade, received wisdom is that 1989 and 1990 vie for supremacy and shade in 1988.

It is
always useful to revisit vintages and examine how the wines are evolving. In
the last six months, I attended three dinners in London, two focusing on 1989
and one on the 1988 vintage. Gathering these notes together, I added a handful
of ad hoc wines, including one or two Champagnes that whetted the palate before
broaching the claret. In total, that makes around 40 reviews.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1719931759014-bordeaux+1988+firsts_copy.jpg">Some
bottles, such as the 1988 Lafite-Rothschild, were served in magnums. Do they
age better than bottles? I am still waiting to be totally convinced based on
empirical evidence. The Growing Seasons The
1988 growing season followed the rather miserable 1987. Flowering was late but
passed relatively smoothly, though some coulure and millerandage
affected the Merlot. After a series of storms in June, July was relatively
calm, and August was very dry, though not particularly hot. September saw the
mercury rise to 37°C, and without rain, winemakers began to worry about vine
stress. Things turned on their head when a cold northerly wind slammed the
brakes in mid-September. Producers were on a knife edge. A storm on September
29 gave them the jitters. Some cut their losses and picked, resulting in wines compromised
by under-ripe Cabernet. Many held their nerve and waited, some out in the vines
until October 23, and they reaped the rewards as conditions settled and nudged
fruit to full ripeness.

The
1989 season began very differently, as an early budding portended an early
harvest, possibly in mid-August - inconceivable in an era before global
warming. Those thoughts were nipped in the bud, literally, by an unseasonably
cold April before May swung the other way so that it was 5°C warmer than
average. Flowering passed smoothly, and a large volume was on the cards. June
was hot with the occasional storm. July saw localized hail in Sauternes, which meant
Yquem lost one-third of its crop. Nevertheless, temperatures remained high
between June and September, averaging 20.9°C, not far from 1947 levels. It was
also extremely dry, with just 195mm of rain between May and September. This slowed
the vegetative cycle and created dissonance between higher alcohol levels and
physiological ripeness, so winemakers faced a dilemma of whether to pick or not.
Some did go out at the beginning of September, others waited and
benefitted from rain on September 10, which revivified the vines. It was an
enormous crop of 4.9 million hectolitres, though some of the Merlot lacked
acidity, and some of the Cabernets were excessively tannic.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1719931777353-bordeaux+1988+bottles_copy.JPG">The Wines Given
their reputation, I would have bet on the class of 1989 trumping 1988. Yet the
flush of 1988s made such a positive impression that I immediately raised my
admiration for the vintage. These wines exuded an increasingly rare sense of
classicism that is becoming a valuable commodity in the glaring light of global
warming. Amongst this admittedly small sample size, these 1988s showed little
sign of reaching the end of their drinking plateaux, imbued with refreshing
salinity that ensures you finished the glass – the litmus test of a great
vintage. Even ignoring the First Growths, the likes of 1988 Léoville-Barton and
Lynch Bages are relatively inexpensive and can still be found pretty easily.
Both have much to offer. The 1988 Pichon-Baron came from magnum and epitomized mature
claret in all its glory. Christian Seely advised that this vintage is superior in
large formats, and he was spot on with respect to two magnums tasted in
September and again in February this year.&nbsp;

What
the 1988 vintage lacks is a superstar. That may explain why it is not quite as
revered as others. Compare this to 1989, which boasts two or three headliners
that helped establish its reputation, namely Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion
and Petrus. Robert Parker’s adulation on release anointed each, and he was
right on the money because all three flirt with perfection. However, the
Pessac-Léognan wines are inconsistent from bottle to bottle, and the Haut-Brion
and La Mission poured in London were a bit off-color, whereas the pair poured
in Hong Kong were absolutely stunning. Before that dinner, I was adamant that
La Mission was pulling away from 1989 Haut-Brion. But on this occasion, the
First Growth was perfection - one of the greatest of two dozen bottles over the
last two decades. By contrast, the 1989 Petrus has been a consistent performer.
I cannot remember a bottle that didn’t have me leafing through my thesaurus for
superlatives, winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet perhaps at the peak of his powers.
As you move away from the elite château, the 1989s become less consistent with
some Grand Cru Classés either drying or tinged with under-ripeness, an aspect
that jars with a superficial sweetness. Some of my favorite estates, like Grand
Puy Lacoste and Léoville Barton, are adequate but outshone by their 1990
counterparts. Perhaps it is unfair to contrast with my selection of 1988s
because it focused on the very best, and if I were able to taste more widely, would
I have encountered similar inconsistency?<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1719931796290-bordeaux+1989+bottles_copy.JPG">Final Thoughts The decade
of the 1980s is a sweet spot for lovers of mature Bordeaux. It is blessed with
benevolent growing seasons, and its wines are at an age when their terroirs
shine through. Banal as it reads, these are mostly delicious wines that are
fascinating in terms of their complexity, their virtues, and, in a perverse way,
their shortcomings. Wines express their respective winemaking philosophies in their
youth, and it is only through maturity and the manifestation of secondary
aromas and flavors that individuality is articulated. As such, 1988 and 1989 are
perfect vintages to revisit, and due to the abundant crop, they occupy
merchants’ lists at prices that question why you keep shelling out at primeur. My
takeaway from these dinners was to drink more 1988 Bordeaux.Finally, I take this opportunity to apologize to the parents who returned from their weekend break to find the rockery rebuilt in their living room. It was not my idea. I can’t imagine how I would react if it happened in my own home, but I know that behind all my anger and expletives, I would be laughing. © 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/desert-island-dinner-1961-pomerol-in-excelsis-jun-2024">Desert Island Dinner: 1961 Pomerol in Excelsis</a>, Neal Martin, June 2024 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/a-century-of-fours-jun-2024">A Century of…Fours</a>, Neal Martin, June 2024 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/the-bordeaux-soundtrack-icons-at-legacy-records-may-2024">The Bordeaux Soundtrack: Icons at Legacy Records</a>, Neal Martin, May 2024 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/the-dalmatian-vintage-bordeaux-2023-apr-2024">The Dalmatian Vintage: Bordeaux 2023</a>, Neal Martin, April 2024

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