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Bordeaux's best for 2006 debut in a gloomy market
By Elin McCoy |
February 22, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
I'M sipping and spitting my way through 100 top Bordeaux wines from the 2006 vintage in the glitzy red and gold third-floor ballroom at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel.
I see little excitement among the assembled retailers and writers. Yes, the whites are excellent, bright and luscious. And many reds are very good, though they lack the depth and concentration of the 2005s.
Some have the green notes of unripe grapes; a few have the fine balance and structure people used to call classic. The best are wines for drinkers, not collectors and speculators.
Last year's Union des Grands Crus tasting of newly arriving 2005s was jammed, the atmosphere buzzed, the producers beamed and crowed, and the prices were the highest ever. Of course, that vintage was the best in decades, and Wall Street was still thriving. Collectors grumbled about the cost yet snapped up the wines anyway. Prices of the greatest 2005s are now being slashed.
Enter the 2006s.
"I already know I won't make money on the 2006s," said retailer Max Marinucci of the Wine Connection in New York's Westchester County. "It's a question of how much I'm going to lose. Everyone is going to discount the hell out of them." Sounds pretty good to me.
If you have a cellar full of Bordeaux, though, forget buying. Otherwise, wait until April to see if competition drives prices lower.
A cool damp August, then heat and sun followed by heavy rain in mid-September, made 2006 difficult. The wineries that could afford expensive vineyard work, harvested before the rain and selected the best barrels to produce very good wines.
As Sylvie Cazes-Regimbeau, president of the Union des Grands Crus, observes as she hands me a glass of her family's savory Chateau Lynch-Bages (US$75), "for us, 2006 was almost the same quality as 2005, but a different structure, with typical Bordeaux elegance." I think it's better than the 2005, and cheaper.
Good value is in savory Domaine de Chevalier (US$50), polished Branaire-Ducru (US$55) and smooth, rich Lagrange (US$46). Best include elegant Rauzan-Segla (US$80), silky Canon (US$85) and generous Figeac (US$100).
I see little excitement among the assembled retailers and writers. Yes, the whites are excellent, bright and luscious. And many reds are very good, though they lack the depth and concentration of the 2005s.
Some have the green notes of unripe grapes; a few have the fine balance and structure people used to call classic. The best are wines for drinkers, not collectors and speculators.
Last year's Union des Grands Crus tasting of newly arriving 2005s was jammed, the atmosphere buzzed, the producers beamed and crowed, and the prices were the highest ever. Of course, that vintage was the best in decades, and Wall Street was still thriving. Collectors grumbled about the cost yet snapped up the wines anyway. Prices of the greatest 2005s are now being slashed.
Enter the 2006s.
"I already know I won't make money on the 2006s," said retailer Max Marinucci of the Wine Connection in New York's Westchester County. "It's a question of how much I'm going to lose. Everyone is going to discount the hell out of them." Sounds pretty good to me.
If you have a cellar full of Bordeaux, though, forget buying. Otherwise, wait until April to see if competition drives prices lower.
A cool damp August, then heat and sun followed by heavy rain in mid-September, made 2006 difficult. The wineries that could afford expensive vineyard work, harvested before the rain and selected the best barrels to produce very good wines.
As Sylvie Cazes-Regimbeau, president of the Union des Grands Crus, observes as she hands me a glass of her family's savory Chateau Lynch-Bages (US$75), "for us, 2006 was almost the same quality as 2005, but a different structure, with typical Bordeaux elegance." I think it's better than the 2005, and cheaper.
Good value is in savory Domaine de Chevalier (US$50), polished Branaire-Ducru (US$55) and smooth, rich Lagrange (US$46). Best include elegant Rauzan-Segla (US$80), silky Canon (US$85) and generous Figeac (US$100).
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