Tasting notes on the harvest.

I scrawl the following words towards the end of May, having recently returned from a week in Bordeaux… Now, there’s a phrase that hasn’t appeared in print for a while – over three years, to be exact. And after all that has happened since March 2020, it really was good to be back, never mind that tasting a new claret vintage is a not inconsiderable challenge (there is always a lot of wine to take on board).

Furthermore, the 2021s were never going to be the easiest to assess, since the Bordelais vignerons had to cope with numerous difficulties throughout the whole of their growing season. You name it, Mother Nature launched it. A well-documented killer frost in April; some more frost in May, albeit localised; May was also cool and damp, while June saw some outbreaks of hail; and July continued May’s wet, chilly pattern, causing mildew on the vines. It was only in August that the weather started to turn for the better and luckily October was the sunniest since 1991, so those properties that took a chance, waiting and waiting before they picked, well, they were finally rewarded with some lovely, healthy grapes. However, by this time, the damage was done, as there were not very many of them, yields were (generally) going to be at the lower end of the scale.