No matter how much one might hear that Bordeaux wines are over-classified and overrated, one would have a very difficult time refuting how truly amazing these wines can be when they are aged to maturity in the proper storage conditions. Jason Alexander, Advanced Level Certified Sommelier and former Wine Director of legendary Cyrus and Restaurant Gary Danko, popped into the SF Wine Center to share his wisdom on the wines of this storied region. Having lived in Bordeaux for a couple of years, Jason brings an appreciation and depth of knowledge that comes from true intimacy. He found a willing audience in our class full of Bordeaux enthusiasts eagerly awaiting their chance to taste an absolutely epic wine list—including the 100-point scoring Château Montrose 1990, recently promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé A (Bordeaux’s second highest classification) Château L’Angelus 1985, the highly rated Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1986, and many more. All these lovelies were hand selected from Brian McGonigle’s beautiful collection stored in pristine condition here at the San Francisco Wine Center. Here’s a taste of what we learned…
Bordeaux has been saddled with some unfair stigmas, the most egregious being that Bordeaux is only good in top vintages. Not true, as we discovered—but more on that in a second. First let’s say what exactly indicates a good vintage. Technically, it’s the ideal synergy of three conditions: a frost-free period of bud break and flowering, a nice long season of growing and ripening, followed by a climatically stable and rainless harvest season. The outcome from such a trifecta results in superb ripeness of fruit, vivacious acidity, and remarkably complex aromatics; all of which blissfully harmonize into wines that will age for decades, and in some cases, a century. It’s by this equation that the world has come to idealize certain show-stopping vintages such as 1900, 1945, 1961, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2001 (in Sauternes), 2005 and of course the recent history-making vintages of 2009 and 2010. But what some may forget is that it doesn’t mean all other vintages are necessarily bad. In fact, many of them have just been overshadowed by the higher ranked years and may develop as well or even better than more highly reviewed vintage wines as they age. Of the wines we tasted, some of the lesser or so-called “off vintages” turned out to be some of the best wines in the lineup. Excellent examples were the Château Léoville-Las-Cases 1981 from Saint-Julien, Château L’Angelus 1985 from Saint-Emilion, and Château Haut Brion 1994 from Pessac-Leognan. Although these off-vintage wines may have expressed a somewhat different style and progression, it doesn’t argue the fact that they are drinking magnificently. So at the end of the day when it comes to the wines of Bordeaux, vintage does matter but pleasant surprises abound and there are often relative bargains to be discovered in those less celebrated vintages.