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Commanderie

April 26, 2021

“Bordeaux 2020 Vintage Tasting”, Commanderie de Bordeaux in Bristol, Monday 26th April 2021


Maître Susan Darwall-Smith tells us about this marvellous tasting event:

I am delighted to report that the “Bordeaux 2020 Vintage Tasting” with members of Bristol Commanderie on Monday evening was a great success! We enjoyed a wonderful evening of superb wines & fine weather! We met outside in our garden to comply with the current Covid restrictions. Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny evening but very cold so it was necessary to wear plenty of warm clothing! The delicious wine certainly helped to keep us warm!

We felt extremely privileged to taste so many excellent wines. Thank you so much to the Grand Conseil, the chateaux and the wine merchants for sending 30 wines for us to taste. It was incredibly generous.

It gave us a real opportunity to experience the vintage and taste wines from different appellations & of different varieties : dry whites, rosé, clairet, reds and sweet white wines.

It was interesting to note that many of the wines will be ready to drink reasonably early.

The wines from the well-known chateaux were outstanding, of course but we thought all the wines were well balanced with plenty of fruit and many of the lesser known châteaux were very enjoyable indeed.

Although, sadly, we are unable to visit Bordeaux at the moment, we felt we were there with you all in spirit as we were tasting wines from each chateau!

We were a group of 15 Commandeurs in total. Charles Lucas, our Cellar Master was incredibly efficient, as always, making sure we tasted each wine. Commandeurs Mimi Avery, Matthew Hemming MW and Aidan Bell [all wine trade professionals] spoke about the wines & gave their views. Mimi & Matthew have prepared a brief summary of the wines which you can find below.  

Once again, the wines of Bordeaux & the generous wine makers and merchants brought members of Bristol Commanderie together to celebrate the new vintage. It was a memorable occasion particularly after such a difficult & challenging year.
A huge thank you to you all.

Bordeaux toujours Bordeaux!


Mimi Avery - Commandeur  

What a fantastic excuse for the first post lockdown 3 gathering. A tasting of the 2020 Bordeaux’s with a group of Bordeaux lovers and aficionados

It had turned into a lovely afternoon and the early evening sun set across the manicured lawn and perfect cottage garden. It was destined to be a cool April evening, so several layers of jumpers, scarves and coats were at the ready.

The tasting was laid out in the open air, and plates of hors d oeuvre were set at each place with glasses ready. During the tasting hot sausages and cheese and biscuits appeared at apt intervals, making for the most pleasant English En-Primeur tasting that I have ever attended.

The white wines were varied in style with differing varietal blends and winery methods such as lees aging and oak aging. They showed the modern diversity of Bordeaux white – there is something to suit every palate and pocket.

The rose’s split the tasters – and brought to the fore that what buyers may perceive as being popular delicate bordeaux rose does not necessarily relate to the consumers palate need for more fruit and juicyness.

The reds again were spanning the full range of quality and styles.

Ripe fruit flavours dominated – with varying amounts of tannin from both the fruit and oaking. The ‘tour around the regions’ showed promising signs – and, again, there was interesting dialogue between those more used to tasting En-primeur, and yet there were a surprising number that already appealed to the consumers. As the perceived quality increased so did the concentration and balance as you would expect.

The sweet wines were more diverse – so often you get “noble rot across the board” vintages or “clean” sweet vintages here, however 2020 was a varied year based on whether you waited for the October humidity for the appearance of Noble Rot or picked the overtly ripe, drying grapes in September. This has produced wines where some are deliciously unctuous – others are light and fresh. So it is a year for those who know what they like either way. Mandarine, marmalade and noble rot got my higher ratings.

Overall a thoroughly interesting, educational and convivial evening !

Bordeaux toujours Bordeaux !


Matthew Hemming - Commandeur & MW

One facet of Bordeaux’s 2020 vintage is that the warmth and generosity of the season has yielded wines of pure pleasure. After lockdown 3, we were all in need of a bit of pleasure and the opportunity to share a few glasses – in a covid-responsible style – with fellow Commandeurs, in Maître and Simon’s beautiful garden, was more than sufficient to distract us from the chill of a late April evening. Of course, the excellent sausages also helped.

Bordeaux may be the [French accent on] grand-est fine wine region in the world but its production spans from the Grand Crus to petit chateaux and our tasting was a reminder that one does not have to be [engage English] grand to be delicious. Indeed, thoroughly excellent wine can emerge from the most modest, or petit, of estates; just as the big guns can misfire from time to time. It is a common mistake to associate Bordeaux only with the Grand Crus as, given the right context, even a generic Bordeaux IGP can do a grand job!

Our tasting began with a flurry of uncomplicated, fresh and fruity whites that demonstrated how Bordeaux can perform at the business end of the wine market. Chateau Lamothe’s Vincent Reserve was the stand-out of these junior wines – clean, bright and sappy – at this level Bordeaux can produce unoaked everyday Sauvignon that is so much more characterful than many of its new world competitors.

2020 does not appear to be a great year for dry white Bordeaux and I suspect the elevated heat and prolonged dry period in the late summer punished the earlier-ripening Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon vines. Most of the wines will, however, provide satisfying and generous drinking on release and in their first flush of youth. Chateau Latour Martillac side-stepped the challenges of the year with aplomb, showing its class with a white of focus, tension and structure. This estate appears to be on a roll in recent years and is one to watch.

A trio of rose wines showed the diversity of this category in Bordeaux. At one end of the spectrum the Bouey Colors Pantone was so pale as to be almost white. In a bone dry and very delicate style, this nods to the super-pale Provencal wines being sipped on yachts bobbing on the waters of the Riviera. I am sure it will fulfil a similar role by the sea at Arcachon. At the far end of the spectrum was a deeply coloured Clairet from Chateau de Parenchère. As is traditional this was a full-blooded and robust rose, knocking on the door of a red wine.

Speaking of red wine, warm vintages are often very kind to the less privileged appellations of Bordeaux as cooler sites achieve levels or ripeness denied them in other years. Wines like Boutinet’s Bordeaux Superieur showed this side of 2020, with bright, ripe and chewy Merlot fruit.

The right bank selection high-lighted some of the different styles being produced in the large and heterogenous commune of Saint Emilion and its satellites. Chateau Croix Labrie was extremely dark-toned, concentrated and dramatic. It is a hedonistic expression of Saint Emilion and is certain to get big scores from some of the critics. In a more classical style, Chateau Cadet le Bon was far more harmonious and savoury.

Opinions seem to diverge as to whether 2020 favoured Merlot or Cabernet Franc on the right bank. Pierre-Olivier Clouet – technical director of Cheval Blanc – is adamant that it was a Merlot year; John Kolassa – former director of Rauzan Segla and Canon – assured me it is a great year for Cabernet Franc! I tend to side with John and find that where Cabernet Franc makes its presence felt, such as with the 10% ‘seasoning’ it lends to Chateau Lamothe de Haux (Cotes de Bordeaux), its fragrance and spice brings real lift and personality to the wines.

We were fortunate to see a clutch of familiar names from the Medoc at our tasting. Ever-reliable, Chateau Beaumont is silky, charming and very Margaux-esque in 2020. This will likely represent excellent value for mid-term drinking. Nudging a little bit further north, Chateau Beychevelle’s new winery seems to be paying dividends as their 2020 is very pretty and very precise, with vivid fruit and a typically Beychevelle sense of elegance. Another wine showing excellent typicity and vineyard signature was Chateau Batailley that had the textbook graphite and blackcurrant that broadcast ‘Pauillac!’ loud and clear.

Our evening drew to a close with a short flight of Sauternes and Barsac. 2020 was not a year of bountiful noble rot so a number of the wines missed the complexity, spice and intense acidity that characterise botrytis infection. Late harvesting can supply honeyed tropical fruit flavours and sweetness and wines like Loupiac’s Coteaux de’L will provide simple and charming early drinking – ideal as an aperitif. Whilst few of the sweet wines we tasted have the structure to age, Chateau Coutet is a notable exception. One of the few wines to show a strong botrytis influence it is a gorgeous wine of light, shade and nuance, with the poise and delicacy of classic Barsac.

One facet of Bordeaux’s 2020 vintage is that the warmth and generosity of the season has yielded wines of pure pleasure. Making early inroads into discovering this new vintage, sharing in the warmth and generosity of the Commanderie de Bordeaux – even in the chill of a Somerset April – was a pure pleasure to reflect that of the wines we shared, thanks to the warmth and generosity of our friends in Bordeaux. We look forward to the further pleasure of visiting the region again as soon as we are able.

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