In the news

Château Coutet 2010 Barsac 18 - Drink 2022-2040 

 
Smudgy and interesting, already, on the nose. lots of richness and smothness. really. This approaches the idea of a classic vintage with its density and concentration. Long. Very Fine. RS 156g/L, TA 4.2 , 14°.

 

The sweet white bordeaux of the 2010 vintage are, like the reds, quite different in style from the 2009s. They are generally much less obviously sweet with more pronounced acidity and in many of the wines, as in the dry whites, there is a distinct citrus-peel character. Racy rather than mouthfuls of explosive honey, the best 2010s may just turn out to be easier to drink, or at least match with savoury foods, than the 2009s.

But, as Bill Blatch outlines in his detailed vintage report, those producers who waited and who practised really careful, plot-specific selections have been able to make wines with marked botrytis character but always great freshness (with the intriguing exception of Ch Raymond Lafon, according to my single tasting of this very sweet wine) thanks to generally cool nights and two particularly cold periods, 16-30 Sep and 13-28 Oc. The first week of October saw record-high temperatures for October, on the other hand. Our image shows 26 ºC recorded in the Médoc on 8 Oct, but a temperature of 29 ºC in the shade was recorded in Barsac on 9 Oct.

After the unusually dry July, August and September, October saw much more rain than usual but fortunately this was limited to quite short, sharp downpours. On 4 Oct, for example, 24 mm fell in 24 hours.There were 24 completely dry days in October, including an uninterruptedly dry period 11-22 Oct after a particularly rainy period that caused a new burst of botrytis, 'perfect for Sauternes', according to Sandrine Garbay of Ch d'Yquem. During this cool, dry, windy period the sugars were concentrated in the grapes.

She reports some picking of nobly rotten grapes 20-22 Sep and 27-30 but most of them were picked in cold weather (hence high-acid wines) in the second half of October - with a new record set for the sheer quantity of grapes picked in a single day at Ch d'Yquem on 22 Oct. The last grapes picked that went into Yquem were picked on 29 Oct.

At Ch Climens, 2010 was their first year of conversion to biodynamic viticulture and they appreciated the fact that the lowish temperatures kept the bugs and fungal diseases at bay. They didn't pick anything until three days at the end of September, which yielded 13% of the crop. But they only really got going in the first three weeks of October. They were able to bring in a further 32% between 5 and 11 Oct and then, with full botrytis finally in evidence, 55% of the crop 19 to 23 Oct. This produced 19 different lots of wine (still unblended) and represented an average yield of 20 hl/ha, almost exactly the same as in 2009 even though the character is much more refined and crisper.

Most of the notes below are the result of the blind tasting of the Sauternes and Barsacs produced by members of the Union des Grands Crus, about which I wrote in my Report from Bordeaux 3. (As indicated in Filming every sip, there were at least two TV crews there and multiple photographers.) A couple of these wines I was able to taste again knowing what they were. Suduiraut and Coutet were especially impressive, as was L'Extravagant de Doisy-Daëne, as well as the usual Climens and Yquem. But there were few hidden gems among the lower ranks in 2010 - unlike the case with the dry reds.

Jancis Robinson