Bordeaux Favours the Bold, the 2018 En Primeur

Few luxury products are as dependent on the weather for their quality as fine wine is. The 2018 Bordeaux vintage proved that to be the case once more. This was a year in which the weather at varying times aggravated, confused and even confounded the Bordelais.

It probably brought some of the organic winemakers like those at Château Palmer and Château Pontet-Canet to tears as going organic meant limited options when it came to staving off the mildew. For the rest, the confusing weather made them work harder than usual and limited their yield. In fact, they even had to work Sundays which for the French is a very big deal. For example, there was one weekend in May where it rained Friday and Saturday requiring the winemakers to spray copper sulfate on Sunday. If they waited till Monday, it would have been too late. These winemakers went through the entire season watching their vineyards eagle-eyed day in and day out as if they were tending to a relative on life support in the emergency room of a hospital. Like other journalists, critics, distributors and importers, I was all the more curious about the vintage as a result.