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Bill Blatch publishes his 2008 Bordeaux Vintage Report - 29/01/2009

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 from the Gironde...

"Nobody's going to believe it, and I'm not making this up, but 2008 in Bordeaux is rather a good vintage."

"...Meteorologically, 2008 looks to be the identical twin vintage of 2007...So how come the wines of 2007, whilst retaining the same late-harvest characteristics of relatively high acidity, had turned out so radically different from those of 2008, the former bright, fruit-driven, fine-styled and elegant, the latter darker, richer, more generous and more tannic? Even to the growers, the outcome came as something of a surprise. They were expecting 12.5 º and suddenly it all came in at 14 °; anthocyanin counts of 7-800 and they got over 1,000; IPTs (tannin measure) of 50 and they ended up often over 90.

The answer seems to lie, despite the apparent similarities, in the vine's radically different behaviour in 2008 compared with 2007. In 2007, it had got off to an early and rapid start, with a quick early budding, followed by an early, if erratic, flowering; and it was only then that it got slowed down by the dreary summer months, and then achieving a flash last-minute ripening in those fine September days.

2008 was entirely different: from the beginning of the season right up to the end, the vine never did anything fast all year; it took its time over all the stages; it seemed lazy, didn't want to bud, grow leaves, flower or do anything at speed. Consequently, it had very slow cycles, which, despite the strain put on it by the April frost, by the excess of water in May and by a mediocre summer, allowed it to perform more effective ripening transformations in its grapes all very gradually and very inconspicuously. ..

...(2008 was) a very late harvest that everyone could finally be proud of. If only its volume had been as satisfactory...Overall, it was the lowest yield since the Great Frost of 1991."

Written by Bill Blatch, Bordeaux, 25 January 2009, with the collaboration of meteorology assistants Luke Attawinda and Sam S.Yoojle.