1998 Valandraud

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2018 - 2035

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Following an outstanding '98, Jean-Luc Thunevin has crafted a concentrated yet charming '99, from vines picked "at leisure" from September 11 through October 8. While crop levels were a bit higher than those of the previous year (36 hectoliters per hectare vs. 30), there will actually be less Valandraud produced in '99 because the crop was concentrated by the use of reverse osmosis on some of the late-picked lots. Incidentally, Le Virginie de Valandraud has been "a real wine since '97," according to Thunevin: It's not simply the lots that don't make the cut for the grand vin, as it was previously, but rather Thunevin's Bel-Air parcel in Saint-Etienne de Lisse, which features "cold soil" (red clay over chalk) and is usually harvested quite late (from September 27 through October 8 in '99).

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There are three kinds of right-bank Bordeaux in 1998, opines Jean-Luc Thunevin, who has created one of the true cult wines of Bordeaux in just a few short years. First, there are the wines that are a little too ripe, too moux. Then there are the wines that were too heavily extracted, wines that thus are burdened with hard tannins. And then there are the successes of the vintage, including an unusually high number of Pomerols. Thunevin 1998 Valandraud is definitely in the third group. The yield was just 30 hectoliters per hectare in '98, says Thunevin, adding that polyphenol levels were normal, and that tannins were thoroughly ripe. The merlot came in with potential alcohol in the 13% to 13.5% range, he noted, "and that was after we lost a full degree due to the rain." Thunevin recently purchased another six hectares of old vines not far from Pavie; this is the source for his new Clos Badon Thunevin, but some of the best fruit from this plot now goes into Valandraud. There will be about 1,000 cases of 1998 Valandraud, compared to fewer than 400 of the '97.

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