Grand Cercle 2014 Primeurs‏

2014 Grand Cercle Primeurs

 

That 2014 was a better vintage in Bordeaux than the annus horribilis of 2013 can be filed under No sh*t Sherlock. But was it actually any good?

The Grand Cercle press release characterises it as a early developer turned bad pupil who aced the resits - a magnificent vintage miraculously saved.

It depends where you look - if the soil or terroir defines character and provides the underlying potential, vintage dials up or down the intensity and the winemaker brings balance.

 

If a good year leaves little for the winemaker to do, a bad year is where the real work starts. So a good test of a vintage is the consistency of quality across chateaux and winemakers.

 

Tasting the 2014 Primeurs, I was looking primarily for balance; other qualities may develop over time, but if balance is lacking at the beginning, it will never come later.

 

Based on what I tasted at the Grand Cercle, 2014 looks to be a perfectly respectable sort of year with a few wines showing a sensuously plump opulence and freshness with good underpinnings, but not the across-the-board generosity of 2009-2010.

 

The stand out regions from this tasting were:

 

- St Emilion Grand Cru Classe and Pomerol on the right bank

- Pauillac, Graves, Pessac-Leognan and St Estephe on the left

 

There were also a couple of wines that punched above their weight with an impressive showing from Fronsac and Lalande de Pomerol.

 

The few whites were all good. Stand-out reds are listed below:

 

Graves

Saint-Robert Cuvee "Poncet Deville" pure and fresh with rip cherry fruit, balanced

 

Pauillac

Fonbadet pure, focused, precise; mineral and fresh

 

Pessac-Leognan

Haut Lagrange plump, soft, velvety - lovely

 

Pomerol

Clos Vieux Taillefer ripe, fresh, plump, focused

Vray Croix de Gay fresh, precise, long and focused

 

St Emilion Grand Cru Classe

Fleur Cardinale ripe, soft, velvety and plump; lovely texture

La Marzelle ripe, fresh, plump and balanced; Good structure and underpinnings

Ch de Pressac sweet, ripe, plump fruit, well-balanced

 

St Estephe

Serilhan sweet ripe fruit, leathery gaminess, drinking very nicely now

 

There were also a number of outliers that merit a special mention:

 

Ch Dalem, Fronsac 2014 dark fruit, cool mint, excellent structure, really well made. A revelation.

 

Ch Siaurac, Lalande de Pomerol 2014 smooth, ripe, full and balanced

 

Ch Croix Cardinale, St Emilion Grand Cru, 2014 a "little cousin" of the Fleur Cardinale, pure, fresh, precise cherry fruit

 

Haut-Bacalan, Pessac-Leognan, 2009 the 2014 samples had gone missing in transit, so he found some 2009s to show; pure, fresh, mineral, concentrated and focused

 

Tour Seran, Haut Medoc 2011 Cru Bourgeois, blended by the best sommelier in the world, apparently; lots of crowd-pleasing flavour going on with good structure and underpinnings