The 2013 vintage will not be a memorable vintage of Bordeaux. Concerning red wines, I mean. Because white wines, dry as well as sweet ones, proved to be “delicious”, “precise”, with “lovely aromas”. That’s what reveals an analysis published today by VitaBella Luxury Wine. In fact if the scores have not been released yet and if the famous American critic Robert Parker has not tasted these wines yet, VitaBella Luxury Wine, with its performing Webtracking tools, analyzed the comments made during the whole week on blogs and social medias by the professionals that came from all around the world to Bordeaux.
In Sauternes, Yquem 2013 is the big winner, it has been the star of the week. If other names emerged, they were far from Yquem which had organized a special evening to better promote its wine. Other châteaux only took prt to the traditional tasting, which also explains a number of comments much less important. From around the world, specialists have loved Yquem 2013. James Molesworth from Wine Spectator awarded it 95-98 points that he defined by “purity” and “the length extraordinary”. “Impressive”, “pristine” were some words often used for these 2013 sweet white wines which is far from the cliché of rich, opulent and powerful Sauternes, who got top scores a few years ago. Tastes change for this great sweet wine, let’s hope that this great 2013 vintage will also be a turning point for the Sauternes in general ……
Concerning dry white wines, the consensus is immediate: everybody loved the 2013 dry white wines, from Pessac Léognan or elsewhere. Of course, the Pessac Léognan wines are shining, led by Mission Haut Brion and Haut Brion. With 95-98, James Molesworth said that Haut Brion is “possibly the wine of the vintage”, and everybody praised its complexity and tension. In general, the structure of white wines surprised these experts, either at Cos d’Estournel or Château Margaux.
Although red wines received much less positive/ultra positive comments compared to white wines, we note a first good point for Bordeaux as far as the 2013 vintage is concerned. Indeed, many professionals were surprised by the quality of some red wines, while the vintage was strongly criticized before En Primeurs. While some talk about heterogeneity, many consider that the decisions made by the owners have been critical this year. However, the consensus exists when it comes to the demand for lowering prices. Compared to previous editions, we also note that the interest for Bordeaux Primeurs is declining. There were more discussions during the En Primeurs week in the last few years. The early “bad reputation” of the vintage – a reputation made before anyone had tasted the 2013 – , the high prices in recent years and the current economic situation are the major causes that are mentioned to explain this declining interest.
If no big name really stands out of the crowd when it comes to red wines (it is a true château picking, château by château and not an appellation compared to another one), a strong element stands for 2013 compared to recent vintages : very little or no mention is made of the technological inputs (reverse osmosis, optical sorting… ) making room for mentions about the work of the vignerons in the vineyard. Somehow, this vintage comes with a more “human face” than in the past. All this is making it ultimately more friendly, a very good point after this first En Primeur week.
This analysis will be presented/ by Guillaume Jourdan at the eMarketing conference on April 10th, in Paris . More information on“How Big Data reinvents Marketing Studies””
(*Since 2003, Guillaume Jourdan has been advising more than 200 prestigious wine estates for their international communication strategy incl. Chapoutier, Hugel, Dr Loosen, Famille Perrin, Cos d’Estournel, Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie’s Miraval…Write to Guillaume info@vitabella.fr)
