1999 Branaire-Ducru

Branaire had its latest harvest since 1993, picking during the first half of October, with no rot until the very end, according to director Philippe Dhalluin. In fact, he adds, the cabernet sauvignon came in with higher potential alcohol on average than the fruit in 2000 ("the weather after October 9 was great"), and the pH of the 2001 is actually a bit higher than that of the 2000. Dhalluin describes the young 2001 as "a rich, deep, fruity wine, analytically very much like the 2000. We were careful about extraction: we'd much rather do a long and gentle maceration than a lot of pumping over."

As of mid-July, 2000 was shaping up as one of the worst vintages of the last hundred years, director Philippe Dhalluin told me at the end of March. But then came a near-miraculous second half of the growing season, and the fruit finally ripened: Branaire harvested late, beginning the merlot on September 25 and finishing up the cabernet on October 10, just before persistent rains began. Dhalluin describes the 2000 as more opulent at the outset than this estate superb '96, but notes that the earlier vintage may be more elegant and classic. Still, he says, the 2000 shows a sappy freshness to go along with its big tannins. Incidentally, Dhalluin convinced me that the key to Branaire's characteristic chocolatey quality is not its merlot, but rather a parcel of old cabernet vines planted on late-ripening chalk and red clay soil in St. Laurent, a few kilometers west of the chateau. "This fruit always adds an exotic aspect to our wine," said Dhalluin. "If we vinified it by itself, we could make a very interesting vin de garage." We then both agreed that that would be a bad move for a major Medoc chateau.

"We've never seen such high degrees as in '99, when we started picking merlot on September 15 with 14.9% potential alcohol," said director Philippe Dhalluin, who added that the early merlot lacked a bit of flavor and that he preferred the later-picked merlot, even where the berries swelled somewhat as a result of the rains. Still, even the cabernet sugars were a very high 12% to 12.7%. The estate carried out "a good long cuvaison at fairly low temperature," said Dhalluin. The '99, like the '98 and '97, represents roughly a 50% selection. "We used to use about two-thirds," noted Dhalluin, "but today St. Julien is far too competitive not to be more selective."