2011 is the most difficult vintage I ever had. We call it the “Nerves war”. The various consultants wanted to be helpful. But with the 2011 Bordeaux vintage, they just don’t know how to help.
2011 Bordeaux is a dangerous vintage. We lived through draught, rain and a lot of sun, all in that order. The The entire Right Bank of Bordeaux seems to be a success so far. This includes St. Emilion as well as Pomerol!
Old vines and pre-phylloxera, ungrafted rootstock produced a 2011 Bordeaux vintage that allowed for wine to be made from microscopic yields of only 10 hectoliters per hectare this year!
“2011 will be a more classical styled Bordeaux vintage. The main advantage of this 2011 vintage is its precocity”.
We used a new density-sorting machine, the Triabe system which sorts fruit based on the levels of sugar concentration. It runs the grapes through a bath using specific gravity or density, it separates ripe berries from the less ripe ones while washing the berries as they go through the bath and removes impurities, petioles, rotten skins, etc.
When you want to have fun with your friends in a blind tasting, open one bottle or a magnum and serve the same wine in 3 or 4 glasses in the same flight. Not one person will get it. It’s a fun trick. Trust me, I know. It’s been played on me multiple times!
