This is a longer version of an article also published in the Financial Times.
As I look at each new price announced for 2006 bordeaux, wine that is a year away from being bottled let alone shipped, and years from being ready to drink, I am increasingly incredulous. With a handful of exceptions, we are being asked to pay more for these inky babies than for many – make that most – much older vintages that are already beautiful to drink. Is 2006 a vintage for masochists? Those who buy 2006s may be those who actively like to gamble (on whether the wines will put on flesh in barrel), and those who positively enjoy knowing they have still to pay transport, duties and taxes, and storage charges for years. Admittedly buyers of wine futures can be sure exactly how the wines are stored, but many reputable merchants and traders can provide details of provenance for older vintages too.
According to the trade, the take-up of 2006 has been dramatically lower than of the very much more consistent, glamorous and expensive 2005s even in the UK where the currency has held up reasonably well against the euro. Berry Bros, for example, who apparently sold 50,000 cases of 2005s, expect to sell only about a sixth as much of the 2006 vintage, and are buying very much more cautiously.
So who will buy the 2006s? Certainly not wine lovers in the US, where the market for such European futures seems as flat as a pancake. It looks as though the négociants, the middlemen between the château owners and the merchants, will be left holding considerable stock of the 2006s which they will be hoping to pass on to the much-vaunted new markets in Asia and Russia. It is a fair bet that those in charge of the Foires aux Vins, the September wine fairs at French supermarkets that have now become moppers-up of surplus stock, are currently rubbing their hands with glee.
But older vintages of red bordeaux, rather counter-intuitively, seem to look better and better value every year. Even the 2004s, which are hardly ready to drink but which seem to taste better and better as time goes on, look a snip even at current prices, which are firming up as the 2006s are announced. Most 2003s, never underpriced, are ageing rapidly, but there is value to be had among the 2002s. The 2001s, especially some Pomerols, are probably the bargain and starting to drink well at the level of crus bourgeois and lesser classed growths – and arguably the most telling price comparison is between the baby 2006s and the 2000s, a top drawer vintage just starting to be broachable except for the top end. For about the same amount of money as is being asked for an embryonic 2006, with its distinctly dodgy weather pattern, relying for quality on the strictest selection of only the very best vats, you could in many cases buy a wine from the sun-kissed 2000 vintage, with six more years’ maturity on it.
But if you really wanted a bargain you could pick up one of the better 1999s (generally Médoc) or 1998s (Graves, St-Emilion and Pomerol, which are starting to go up in price), many of which are ready to drink, especially the 1999s, but cost less than the 2006s. The time to invest in the initially over-priced 1997 vintage (with which the 2006 is increasingly compared) has probably passed; these wines were already drinking well two or three years ago. But the best wines of 1996 have been rising in price as the sheer class – and likely longevity – of this classic vintage is increasingly asserting itself. This is probably the last time that there will be bargains to be had among the many successful 1996s and 1995s, the latter vintage being more successful in St-Emilion and Pomerol, the so-called right bank, and just starting to drink well.
The 1994 prices have always been attractive, and some lovely current drinking is to be found in this vintage, especially but by no means exclusively on the leftt bank. Here is a good example of a vintage that costs substantially less than the 2006 and yet has benefited from all the bottle age it needs. The 1993s are much more variable and most of the dreary 1992s well past it, but some 1991s are still vigorous and cost next to nothing beside the 2006s.
The 1990s, released during an economic slump, were some of the very few red bordeaux in living memory that even I would say were seriously underpriced initially, but they certainly caught up, even if they have been drinking well for years. This is not a vintage to buy now and nor in general are the 1989s, which have enjoyed their long period in the sun and should not be bought either as bargains or as long-term prospects.
But the inspiration for this canter through recent vintages came from a series of 1988s I happen to have tasted recently. For years this was a thoroughly cussed, obdurate vintage all over France which for years was desperately tough and inexpressive – all tannin and not much else. But the likes of Lafite, Léoville Las Cases, Eglise Clinet and Certan de May (so both left and right banks for red bordeaux) have now convinced me that at long last, at the ripe old age of 19, the 1988s have lost their hardness – that was always in such contrast to the alluring ripeness of the 1989s and 1990s – and yet there is sufficient fruit and intensity there to make them thoroughly charming mature drinks.
Champagne Krug caused a stir when they decided to release their 1990 and 1989 vintages before the 1988, but they were absolutely right. The top quality 1988 champagnes such as Pol Roger’s Brut Chardonnay and Sir Winston Churchill, and Cristal, are drinking superbly even now, and the same sort of tannin-melting magic has been operative in Burgundy too, where the 1988s were so stiff and unyielding for so long.
All of this shows that good wine can be worth waiting for, that fine old wine can be much more rewarding than the more unresolved hit of a young one, that the only reason for young vintages’ being more expensive than old ones is a combination of ambition and consumers’ fascination with recent reviews. It can be worth researching older vintages. Avoid 1984 but there are bargains to be had among 1985s, 1983s and some 1981s, even if they are coming to the end of their active life. There are few pleasures greater than the calorie-free, non-intoxicating and therefore nanny state-approved bouquet of a fully mature wine. Just make sure that you serve these gentle liquids with relatively gently-flavoured food – and company prepared to wait for the wine to open out rather than expecting to be hit between the eyeballs immediately.
Yes, vine-growing and winemaking may be more sophisticated now than they have ever been for the Bordelais, but it was not all rubbish before the vintage they currently have to sell.