Yesterday, I tasted about 60 wines from the 2007 vintage of Bordeaux at the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting here in New York. Here’s my scouting report:
Overall, as many winemakers told me yesterday, it was a tough vintage with less than ideal weather, and I think it showed in the wines. As a result, the wines for the most part show a cooler-climate flavor profile. This resulted in good white wines which benefitted from having a racy adicity, but the red wines are a bit ungenerously fruited overall. The Bordeaux dessert wines are quite good. 
Prices on 2007 Bordeaux are a bit unrealistically high right now, but it’s widely expected that prices will come down eventually given the weakness of the vintage and the current economic conditions. There are other vintages available at retail that offer better quality, including 2005 and 2006 (which I will also be posting a report on soon), so smart shoppers will want to put their budget toward those vintages, or otherwise choose carefully from among the 2007s when prices come down. Here are my wines to look out for:
Under $30
2007 Chateau Chasse-Spleen – One of my favorite value picks in Bordeaux, this chateau has a reputation for being good year in and year out, and 2007 is no exception. This wine shows good fruit and classic Left Bank graphite to give it some bass notes. When you figure in the modest price of this wine (about $25), this is a fantastic achievement for the vintage. This motivated me to ask owner Mme. Celine Villars-Foubet to do a brief interview with me on the spot, which she kindly did with great aplomb. Look for the video in a future episode right here soon!
2007 Chateau D’Angludet – this is a nice little QPR pick (about $28) from
the Margaux appellation, which otherwise turned in a weak showing in my book. Flavors here are concentrated and darker in nature than other Margaux, apparently because of a higher percentage of petit verdot in this wine. Style is a bit on the modern side, with ripe fruit, concentration and oak; you can argue there’s not a lot of classic Margaux femininity here but this wine is straight-up, more pleasurable than a lot of its more heralded classed-growth brethren.
Worth a splurge
2007 Chateau Haut-Bailly – This is well done for the vintage – very much in the same tight, structured style that the 2006 showed, with classic Haut-Bailly touchstones of lead pencil and dark cabernet fruit showing. This wine has been getting crazy high Parker scores in recent years, and I couldn’t agree more – for the person who wants to drink the finest Bordeaux but can’t afford first-growth prices, Haut-Bailly is one of the top choices out there year in and year out, and one that even a lot of wine geeks haven’t woken up to yet. Check back here soon for video of my chat with Haut-Bailly winemaker Gabriel Vialard.
2007 Pontet Canet – the secret is out among most Bordeaux enthusiasts that this estate is a go-to pick when you want to drink top-flight claret at prices friendly to non-millionaires. The 2007 vintage of Pontet-Canet is quite approachable now, showing very ripe fruit that is even a touch jammy on the nose. The palate is lush and generous. Owner Alfred Tesseron, one of Bordeaux’s esteemed elder statesmen, was also kind enough to sit for a brief video interview with me, and I’ll have the video up here soon.
Appellation summaries
Graves white wines – some good wines here, showing racy acidity from the cool vintage, though perhaps not as good as I’d been hearing. The top wine is easily the light-styled but wonderfully complex and harmonious Pape Clement, a truly great wine; more affordable choices that did well include Ch. Smith Haut-Lafitte and Ch. Malartic-Lagraviere. A lot of the wines show a greenish edge that I’m not crazy about.
St. Emilion – the wines have very pretty noses, almost across the board, but in some cases the palate disappoints. My top wine in the appellation (among those present at the tasting) goes to Ch. Angelus, which was refined and luscious, without being powerful. My value pick goes to Ch. Franc-Mayne, which showed good round fruit as well as slate on the nose.
Pomerol – I only had time to taste two Pomerols, Ch. La Conseillante and Ch. Gazin, which both showed well from opposite ends of the traditional to modern spectrum.
St. Julien – Gruaud Larose stood out to me as a refined, tightly structured wine that will age well.
Margaux – I was not impressed with the classed-growth Margaux I tasted, but top wines like Ch. Margaux and Ch. Palmer were not present. Ch. D’Angludet, profiled above, is my sleeper pick here.
Pauillac – top wines present were Ch. Pontet-Canet, Ch. Pichon Lalande and Ch. Lynch-Bages. I prefer Ch. Clerc-Milon to its stablemate Ch. D’Armailhac at lower price levels.
St. Estephe – I ran out of time before I could taste these, unfortunately.
Sauternes and Barsac: Climens is opulent and unctuous but a bit too over-the-top for me. I liked Ch. de Fargues, Ch. Guiraud, Ch. Coutet, Ch. Doisy Daene, Ch. Bastor Lamontagne, and Ch. Sigalas-Rabaud.
I attended the UGC tasting open to trade/media free of charge.
Ah. I get it now. All the text is below the required forms. It’s so far below that it’s actually attached to the top of the form below it. You think it may confuse other people or is it just me?
It’s not just you, Rocky – don’t know why WordPress designed it that way, it does look like you’re supposed to put the email address below where it says “email address” but it actually goes above. I’ll look into whether I can get that changed, but in the meanwhile, please do post your comment, looking forward to your feedback! Cheers,
Alan