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Bordeaux insider Bill Blatch reports 2008 looking 'very good' - 30/01/2009

The ultimate Bordeaux Insider, Bill Blatch of Vintex, has just published the latest of his annual in-depth Bordeaux Vintage Reports. For followers of Bordeaux, Bill's annual report is always eagerly anticipated. It is almost always the first news from a trusted source on what we can expect when we get to taste the new vintage for ourselves in April.

The full report is available on Jancis Robinson's excellent website, www.jancisrobinson.com, but here are a few extracts to give you a feel for the vintage.

Remember you can taste 2008 for yourself at our Bordeaux Tasting at Lord's Cricket Ground, London on Wednesday, 22nd April.

Click here for more details about this brilliant event.

Back to Bill for the news on the wines...

The Dry Whites

"This is clearly another good vintage for dry whites. As in 2007, the earlier ones were picked before the September good weather could really get to them, so they are similarly fresh-styled and have quite high acidities. However, they seem to have a bit more 2006-type fatness than the tighter 2007s, and also, so far, a much later development of aromatic expression."

The Dry Reds

"The best of the red 2008s surprised the people who made them and are certainly going to surprise others too. Of course, with such disparity in the ripening cycles, there is enormous variation."

"Another general rule may be that the Right Bank has made excellent Merlots, profiting more from the good July conditions, whereas the Left Bank's Cabernet Sauvignons quite clearly benefited more from the final end of season dry warmth. But it's not going to be as easy as that. There are some excellent, rich Left Bank Merlots and some extremely concentrated late harvest Right Bank Cabernets, whose acidity prevents them from losing flavour - so often a problem with these very late harvest wines."

The Sweet Wines

"Sauternes, your luck never holds for long, and in 08, they had the hardest time of everyone. At enormous expense, they have ended up making a tiny amount of wine."

"The balance is generally of moderate alcohol, high sweetness and quite high acidity, stylistically quite similar to the excellent 07s, even sometimes finer, but possibly less rich and less complex."

Overall

"2008 will never possess the strength of 00 or 05, or the opulence of 89 or 90, and nobody is saying this is a great vintage, but its density and weight clearly put it high in the ranks of 'very good' vintages, well ahead of the lighter, more fruit-driven 07s, and, by dint of the riper final tannins, probably of the 06s too."

You can read Bill's in-depth weather report in the vintage here.