Bad News for Bordeaux

Filed in archive French Wines on April 11, 2006

One minute I'm reading that Bordeaux may have a great year and may actually be able to come back from its depressed market. The next day I read almost totally the opposite.

This article from Times On Line points the finger at too much high-tech gizmos and not enough good old fashion wine making:

The Government's solution was to recommend a move towards the methods that have been successful in the New World. These include putting oak chips in barrels and creating powerful groups to make and market the wine. To Gallic purists, this is sacrilege. But increasing numbers of producers, including those in Bordeaux, say that it makes sense.

Yet these attempts to give the wines some of the characteristics of the New World brands may be the root of the problem for those who have spoilt the 2005 vintage. The machine-mad, hi-tech winemakers may well have had their comeuppance. As Christian Moueix, the usually circumspect proprietor of Chateau Pétrus, put it: "It is a great, great vintage year . . . if winemakers had done things in a reasonable way, you could make wonderful wines."

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