2OO9 BORDEAUX VINTAGE – PRACTICALLY PERFECT?

Bordeaux has cause to celebrate. Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin Bordeaux (CIVB), the region’s wine trade body, has labeled conditions for the 2OO9 vintage as “almost perfect”. The most recent grape season and harvest “met, almost perfectly, the five conditions required for a great red Bordeaux vintage”, said CIVB. Its high praise will heighten expectation among buyers following a series of harvests that, while not disastrous, have failed to live up to the critically acclaimed 2OO5. The CIVB’s five criteria for a perfect textbook vintage involve early flowering and fruit-set in warm, dry weather, early color change, good ripening throughout August and September, and dry weather for harvest. The 2OO5 vintage met these conditions “perfectly”, the CIVB said. “So, will 2OO9 be a textbook vintage like 2OO5? This will certainly be the case in many vineyards, but probably not all,” it added.