The Comedown: Bordeaux 2011 Ten-Years-On

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 05, 2022

Two-thousand and eleven was the comedown after the heady days of 2009 and 2010. Customers that had come out of nowhere with fat wads of cash vanished into thin air, phone calls no longer answered. The sudden arrival of Far Eastern-based buyers was matched by their sudden disappearance having quickly wised up to how they were being exploited by the more unscrupulous merchants. The 2011 growing season had been challenging to say the least. Not even the most euphemistic château proprietor was willing to mount their soapbox to claim that it was the same calibre as the previous two vintages. 

Perusing my original en primeur report, I had completely forgotten that I had channelled my inner-Wordsworth/Morrissey to compose a poem that sums up how I felt at the time… 

An Ode to En Primeur

Bordeaux, Bordeaux, in 2011,

Will your wines send me to hell or to heaven?

Is it really worth my time

Investing in unfinished wine?

Are you an exercise of vanity