Squares & Circles: Bordeaux ‘10 At Ten

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 21, 2020

Each February I taste the relevant Bordeaux vintage at 10 years of age, both sighted and blind. This year it is the turn of 2010, a fascinating and highly revered vintage, albeit one not beyond criticism. How have the wines evolved? How does 2010 compare to 2009? Where is its place in these tumultuous times?

Introduction

The passage of time between present and past feels shorter as we get older. Paradoxically, 2010 seems like yesterday, while the current pandemic makes February’s tasting of the vintage feel like a different lifetime. How was the world in 2010? Well, Barack Obama was POTUS, and on this side of the pond David Cameron’s hung parliament sowed the seeds of discontent that ultimately begat Brexit. At the flicks, Christopher Nolan reinvented the intelligent blockbuster with the mind-bending Inception, which I am still trying to work out, and Lady Gaga brought color and camp back to pop music. Nobody then had heard of Greta Thunberg or coronavirus. My palate and penmanship were working for Robert Parker, and slivers of spare time were invested in researching my Pomerol tome; consequently, I spent long stretches in Bordeaux, including en primeur. It was a memorable campaign. The Bordelais were basking in the afterglow of the unprecedented and, as it transpired, unrepeatable success of the 2009s, their euphoria fueled by the rapturously received 2010, which was baptized a great vintage. They could already hear the ring of cash registers... or so they thought.

The title of my primeur report was “Another Royal Flush,” since 2009/2010 was the latest in a series of well-received pairs that stretch from 1899/1900 to 2015/2016. My report on the 2010s in bottle was entitled “Snow-capped Peaks and Troubled Plains,” and it is intriguing to re-read my comments from 2014, noting how the tannins had hardened and that occasionally “there was more astringency and attenuation than is optimal.” My conclusion: “Across the board from First Growths down to Petit Château, if you ask which is the better vintage, I would say 2009 over 2010.” However, I was more positive toward the Left Bank, where I found the Cabernet Sauvignon “in excelsis” and that “the best 2010s on the Left Bank are some of the greatest wines you will ever drink.”

Only with maturity can we really put vintages into focus and place them within the context of other growing seasons. The 2010 vintage was born a different expression of Bordeaux compared to the 2009s that oozed lushness and fruit intensity. Those sensual wines were either exalted or traduced, depending upon what you think Bordeaux should aspire toward. The 2010s produced more challenging and less arousing fare, with drier and less pliant tannins. They were bestowed greater structure – wines with reinforced girders – and alcohol levels as high if not higher than the previous year. Even though (to use Spinal Tap parlance), the 2010s turned it up to eleven, at their heart they were mostly “classic” in style, appealing to Bordeaux purists.

The timing of the 10-year-on horizontals arrives at an intriguing juncture. Tasting the 2009s last year, the pertinent question was whether the fruit and freshness had held up. With respect to the 2010s, I sought to discover if the tannins have begun to polymerize and soften, and gauge where the wines are in terms of approachability and their proximity to drinking plateaus. How do the tannins feel in relation to the fruit? Is there equilibrium between the two, or has the passing of time revealed excessive tannins that render the wines austere and aloof? Do their high alcohol levels intrude? Does this snapshot reaffirm 2010 as a bona fide great Bordeaux vintage or has it been undeservedly placed on a pedestal, and thereby fated to fall short of high expectations? Is beatification warranted like the 1961s, which continue to excel after decades, or are they more akin to 1986s, where the jury is still out on whether they will ever come around?

There is only one way to answer these questions, and that is to taste the wines. For many years I have attended two horizontals held within a few days of each other. BI Wines & Spirits organizes a sighted tasting of around 70 wines at their offices, nearly all bottles directly from properties. Farr Vintners hosts a two-day tasting of approximately 200 wines that are poured single blind within peer groups for a group of experienced professionals predominantly from the trade. Attending two tastings allows examination of the same subject in two different ways. Instead of needlessly publishing the same report twice, I keep the tasting notes separate but publish them together for readers to compare. Accretion of tannin inevitably poses a challenge for anyone tasked with tasting a large number of these wines, and in addition, I was wary of bottles being given insufficient aeration considering the logistical limitations of carrying out a tasting on this scale. Readers should note that bottles were all double-decanted early in the morning of the tasting. Despite these obstacles, there is still a unique opportunity to juxtapose like with like, revealing not only absolute but relative quality. Given a choice of 2010s, what should you open, what should you buy and, maybe, what should you sell?