“…the vintage is very good for the top names of
Bordeaux . From petite châteaus to the premiers crus, the reds show lovely aromas, fruity palates and silky tannins. The bright acidity on many of the wines gives them long and lively finishes… The 2008 reds will be lovely clarets for claret lovers, as the English might say. Or, in a more direct way, if you love typical
Bordeaux you are going to love many wines in 2008. They are real racy reds from
Bordeaux , not superripe-style wines…” JAMES SUCKLING Uncorked, WineSpectator.com
The Bordelais are in the habit of announcing new vintages with dubious meteorological pedigrees as ‘much better than you are expecting’, so when they made the same noises about the 2008s as they had done about the pretty scrawny 2007s, I did not take much notice. But I think all of us tasters who descended on Bordeaux recently were brought up short by just how well the 2008s were tasting – particularly in view of how relatively cool and wet the 2008 summer was last year in Bordeaux.
The weather was good all during the week of primeurs tastings and, as one long-serving Bordelaise put it, sunshine in primeurs week is worth quite a few euros on the opening price. But I don’t think it was just the spring sunlight putting us all in a good mood. The reds we tasted had good healthy colours, excellent acidity, (mostly) ripe tannins (although some of the lesser left bank wines tasted a little green) and enough fruit. Perhaps more important was what the wines did not show. There was none of the dangerous vapidity of the 2007s. None of the overripeness that some producers headed for in the early years of this century in a misguided attempt to copy California Cabernets. Nor, in the same vein, was there evidence of excessive oakiness – even on the right bank where the overall level of wine and winemaking was really quite inspiring in 2008. JANCIS ROBINSON
It did not take me long to realize that the 2008 vintage was dramatically better than I had expected. It had all the qualities that make an excellent and in some cases, a great vintage so special: exceptionally dark opaque colors, gorgeously ripe fruit, stunning purity almost across the board, great freshness (because it was a cool year), slightly higher acids than normal, and remarkable density as well as concentration. Moreover, one of the significant keys to evaluating quality is the maturity of the tannins. In 2008, the tannins are unusually velvety, even in wines that may lack concentration. By day three I was thinking about how this could have happened. When you look at all the facts (not the rumor-mongering from irresponsible bloggers), it seems clear that after the vinifications were done in late October and early November, something excellent had been produced. The wine producers all knew it, but
Bordeaux is always the first to be accused of over-hyping their wines, and the global economic crisis had begun in earnest by November, 2008.
So why has the quality of the 2008 vintage turned out to be excellent, with a number of superb wines that are close to, if not equal to the prodigious 2005 or 2000 vintages (two years with many of the best wines I have ever tasted from top to bottom)? ROBERT PARKER
With prices up to 50% lower than the 2007 and with excellent recent reviews and scores we have decided to release a Bordeaux 2008 Offer. However, as there is uncertainty with the exchange rate and the on-going tax structure for wine in , we are offering the wines as a classic English styled En-Primeur in which you pay to secure the wine in now with the freight and taxes being charged to you at the time of shipping and delivery. In the past we have offered an up-front price inclusive of all taxes.
Wines are sold in three bottle minimums and you pay the PAY NOW price only to secure the wine. This PAY NOW Price is the price of the wine based on the current exchange rate and the first offer prices out of
Bordeaux . Once we receive your order we will secure these wines and confirm this price. The FULL PRICE is our current estimate of the total you will pay if the wines were to be shipped today. You will be charged the difference between these two prices at the time of shipping in early to mid 2011. The exact amount of this final payment will be influenced by the exchange rate at this time as well as the Australian Duty and WET Tax. Due to the fluctuating exchange rate and the possibility that the taxation levelled on wine may change we feel it more transparent to process this last payment when the wines are shipped.
Regards
Alex Wilcox
Click here to download the current 2008 en-primeur offer
