Last week the Union des Grands Crus – an association of top Bordeaux producers – held their annual wine fest in a New York ballroom. As nearly one hundred properties showcased the 2006 vintage, a couple of 
things struck me about the wines I was tasting. Firstly that while this is far from a great vintage, it is a very fair one, and the other was that more and more properties are making modern, international style wines designed for early drinking.
As John Laird, of the importers Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines, remarked to me “2006 was originally lost in the swirl of enthusiasm surrounding the historic 2005 vintage. But now that the wines are arriving in markets around the world, their accessible quality is very apparent. Excellent colors, charming and very obvious fragrances, and mouth-filling and amazingly appealing flavors — already!”
This is not necessarily the good thing it might at first appear. In the process of making these wines so accessible the producers risk loosing something too – namely the traditional, classic Bordeaux that is angular and difficult in its youth but that can age for decades before eventually achieving that astounding depth and complexity that is great claret.
This is a big issue for Bordeaux but one that very few producers are prepared to acknowledge, yet alone to talk about. However, as a point of illustration, this week’s Nick’s Wine of the Week is a fine example of the modern, user-friendly, easy-drinking style, Chateau Cantemerle 2006 ($28), while next week’s will be an altogether different, more traditional Bordeaux.
Cantemerle is an old favorite of mine because they always deliver a delectable, round, velvety, beautifully made wine just packed with ripe fruit finely balanced by soft tannins and just the right degree of acidity for real structure. Not of the first order but terrific value for highly pleasurable current drinking.
Nick, I thought you hit on a really good topic for discussion. Are the Bordeaux winemakers – in their search for modern consumers – losing their identity? I thought the 2006s were very good – not amazing, but solid. I too enjoy Cantemerle and you can’t beat the price.
Nick.
Is this 2006 Cantemerle worth keeping a while or is it your gut that two or three more years in the bottle will make little or no difference.
I look forward to “Part II”
Stuart,
Good question. The wine can certainly be drunk with pleasure now, so my suggestion is to buy a case or two and drink it over the next few years, to see how it develops. My guess is that it will go on improving for about three or four years but not much longer. But that’s only a guess.
N.P.
Nick, I think you’ve proposed a false dichotomy, namely that for red wines to age well they must be undrinkable, or at least a little unpleasant, in their youth. While this is the traditional reasoning on Bordeaux (and old-style Napa Cabs), this logic was shown by the 1982 Bordeaux vintage to be faulty. In fact, the Bordelais have always sought “mature, supple tannins,” but given their marginal climate for ripening grapes, they don’t always achieve them. It is not the quantity of tannins that can make young Cabernet chewy as much as their quality. Mature, supple tannins can be present in high quantity in fully extracted wines, yet these wines will be supple in their youth and still age well. Fully extracted wines from partially ripe grapes, however, will seem grippy in their youth as well as over time, as the tannins were never mature to begin with.
[...] recent column featured a delicious, uncomplicated modern Bordeaux red, Chateau Cantemerle 2006. I call it modern [...]
[...] recent column featured a delicious, uncomplicated modern Bordeaux red, Chateau Cantemerle 2006. I refer to it as [...]