Bordeaux 2011: Vintage of the Epoch

We’re going to call it early and call it now, but at RedtoBrown we believe the 2011 vintage in Bordeaux to be the greatest in many millennia, and indeed the Epoch.

The RedtoBrown team has just spent the week in Bordeaux during the official En Primeur week (unlike some of those other pesky critics who jump the gun and taste the previous week). We started each day tasting through 150 wines before breakfast, another 150 before lunch, and depending on how we felt, sometimes another lazy 100 wines in the afternoon. Over the course of the week the quality of the vintage became clear. The samples have barely gone through malolactic fermentation, it's unclear if these samples are representative, and we’ve no idea what the final blends will look like, but we’ve seen enough to know a vintage of the Epoch when we see one.

Highlights included Chateau Margaux (99-100 points), which displayed a tannin structure reminiscent of the 1374. The Lafite (98-100 points) was quintessential Pauillac and should peak in about 3 centuries. Finally the Latour is we believe the greatest wine ever made and we are giving it our first ever 101 points!

During the week we were also fortunate enough to go to a dinner where we were able to taste through a vertical of Petrus back to 1109. It was a truly magical and decadent dinner (reminiscent of dinners we’ve had in Hong Kong), with the 1492 and 1776 the highlights.

Get in early once the Chateau start pricing their wine (particularly now that RedtoBrown has “called” the vintage), as they will undoubtedly be great investments in the long-term.