Bordeaux 2007 En Primeur - Initial Thoughts

At the end of August last year, the Bordelaise were in a filthy mood. The growing season to that point had been poor and some people were talking about the 2007 vintage being a write-off. But the sun appeared at the beginning of September and shone through to after the harvest finished in mid-October and all was not as bad as feared. We have just returned from tasting the wines in Bordeaux, and the summary is a follows:

• There are some really delicious drinking wines
• BUT there are some horrors too
• Those who applied a thorough green harvest, de-stemmed effectively and sprayed fastidiously have every chance of making good wines. Yet again vineyard management pays off
• Both the dry whites and the sweet whites look very interesting, particularly the latter
• Yields are low. Approximately 30% of the harvest went into the Châteaux wines, 30% into the second wines and the rest was sold off 

So what does this all mean? For those who enjoy drinking claret and are keen to cellar a few cases each year, there will be some lovely wines available but guidance from a wine merchant will be important in order to avoid the horrors. It is not a vintage to search out investment wines and in terms of longevity, we believe most of the wines will cellar for 10-12 years. These wines are likely to drink before their counterparts from 2004, 2005 and 2006. 

That leaves the dreaded question of price. Last year for the 2006 campaign, the Euro averaged €1.45:£1. Today that rate stands at €1.27:£1. This is not a wine merchant’s whinge. Sadly the Bordelaise price the En Primeur in Euros. We priced the 2006 Gruaud Larose at £280.00 - at the same release price the 2007 will be £320.00. We have talked to the French and for once there was a moment of realism. I do hope it persists. At Mouton Rothschild, they said they appreciated the strength of the € and the weakness of £ and the US$ and they would have to bear that in mind. As they finished, in walked another squadron of Chinese, from where comes the main risk to pricing. Will the Bordelaise just court their ‘New Best Friend’ or will they remember the ‘Entente Cordiale’. We will watch this with obvious interest and advise accordingly.

We will be publishing our 2007 En Primeur Offering in the next 3 weeks. If you have any interest in the 2007 wines, please do let us know.