2011 Vintage Review

[RAYC]

A tongue-in-cheek comment from Christian Seely to Jancis on Noval 2011....

a bit like the others but better if you need to write something.

source

Final blends were apparently only approved last Tuesday (30 April) due to commitments in Bordeaux

[RAYC]

Lay and Wheeler blog....

[Alex Bridgeman]

I thought this a very fair summary. Do any of us dissent?

...sexy fragant wines!with traits that seem unlikely to suffer the passage of time well

I disagree as I don't think it's given that a sexy fragrant wine will be unlikely to suffer the passage of time well.

Let me support my hypothesis with some evidence.

There some very fruit-forward wines made in 2011. In particular (of the normal wines) the Graham, Dow, Warre and Vesuvio are full of rich, lush fruit. At this very early stage of their lives the sweet fruit dominates the palate and makes it very difficult to quickly pick up the structural components and the balance between the amount of fruit, tannin and acidity. However, if you aerate the wine for long enough on the palate or just hold it on the palate the tannins and acidity eventually show themselves. The tannins also show themselves as a dark chocolate or coffee element to the finish, with the more tannins the longer the finish. All the lush, fruit-forward wines I've mentioned have some pretty powerful tannins in them but these tannins are ripe and round rather than harsh and green as they have been in some past vintages. When you next get the chance to taste the 2011 vintage, take a sip and then aerate the wine for an extended period to reveal the structure.

The most similar recent vintage that I have experienced at an early stage of its life is the 1994 vintage. On initial release, this was a rich, fruit-forward vintage where the tannins were generally hidden behind the fruit. Early in their lives there was doubt whether the vintage had a long life because of a perceived lack of tannins. 19 years later, there is no doubt that there are some powerful tannins in some of the wines - Dow is an example which comes to mind. The fruit has matured a little and the tannins are now more obvious. I have no idea how long a life the 1994 vintage has, but it has already managed almost 20 years and my experience with them recently does not make me think that they will reach their plateau for another 10-20 years.

I was not around when the 1963's were first released, but I have read reports that the 1994s were very similar to the fruit-dominated 1963s when they were very young. If the '63s can be considered an analogy for the '11s then I would suggest that the '11s are likely to have at least a good 30-40 years before they hit their plateau and the best another 10-20 years on top of that.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Lay and Wheeler blog....

Those people are looking strangely familiar...

[RAYC]

Some of the email offers i am now receiving contain reviews by Suckling, though i can't find a consolidated list...