It seems like yesterday: 1995.
Returning from Japan sans direction, I was treading-water,
whilst fathoming out what to do with my life. I ended up temping at
a Orwellian sorting office for "Readers' Digest" competition
returns, unscrupulously duping 50+ widows into believing they were
on the verge of winning the jackpot, having made it to the umpteenth
round, along with thousands of other gullible competition addicts.
During my 9 to 5 chicanery, over the background blare of Brit-Pop, I
recall evesdropping onto a discussion between two "in-between job"
computer technicians, who kept mentioning modems and some
new-fangled contraption called the "internet". Perhaps they went on
to established a pan-global website? Perhaps they are still tearing
open envelopes in some oxygen-starved dungeon on a God-forsaken
industrial estate? Who knows?
But my, how the last decade has
flown by? Where did that time go? In 1995 I knew nothing about wine
except that it came in red, white and Mateus rosé. I was not
interested in wine and it was not interested in me, so the quality
of the Bordeaux 1995 vintage was as enthralling as my vocation as a
coupon-return filer for the Readers' Digest. But fate preordained my
blossoming relationship with wine, which leads me here, ten years
later with a sucessful website under my belt, writing about a
vintage that just foreshadowed my vinous dawn.
The Growing Season
The year followed four
disappointing, rain-spoilt vintages, Nature's atonement for the 1988
to 1990 trio of exceptional growing seasons. So it came as a relief
to many, not just vignerons but also the merchants engaged in
the en primeur market who could finally make substantial
profits. The vintage conincided with a budgeoning global interest in
wine, a time when new markets were emerging for blue-chip wines and
in particular Bordeaux.
A mild winter and early Spring gave
vines the chance for an even flowering and a long hot summer augured
a great vintage (in fact it was one of the driest summers for 40
years.) Showers from the 7th to the 19th September reminded many
that Nature can be callous and cruel, but fortunately only 145mm
fell, compared to a more deleterious 275mm in 1992. From September
20th through October, there were perfect harvesting conditions. The
result was a "bumper" crop, moderated by the top chateaux who had
thinned their vines during the summer, a practice less prevalent in
vintages at the end of the 1980`s.
The vintage is often compared to
the 1996, that is equally esteemed albeit with a contrasting style:
the 1995 renowned as a Merlot/Right-Bank vintage; the 1996 as a more
Cabernet vintage with less corpulent, more austere, longer-lasting
wines.
The Tasting
Earlier this year, I tasted just
over 40 Bordeaux wines from the 1995 vintage, as part of
Wine International magazine's
"Ten Year On" retrospective. The tasting was conducted completely
blind, with no set order to rely on (i.e. the communes could be
random or grouped together, the Grand Cru Classé might precede Cru
Bourgeois and so on.) There were five of us assessing the Bordeaux
wines, three of whom are respected Masters of Wine.
I used participate in a number of
these Wine International Panel
Tastings and I must say, I have learnt more from these than any
other, because wines are assessed without any preconceptions. It is
akin to a learner-swimmer jumping straight into the deep-end of a
pool: slightly nerve-wracking but compulsive and enlightening. And
there is the possibility of drowning.
There are two scores: the first
using the 100-point system since the Panel Tasting uses this system
and a second converting those scores into my own 25-point system.
Choose whichever suits you.
The Wines
Generally, I found these wines to
be excellent in quality, with a bunch of wines scoring a respectable
20/25 or 21/25 points (90 to 94 on the 100-point scale.) When
blind-tasting, I find that there is a tendency to score more
parsimoniously, in fact I cannot remember a single wine which has
scored a perfect mark in Wine
International. But the tasting did not detract from my own
high-regard for the vintage and bear in mind that many were Cru
Bourgeois and the First Growths were in absentia.
Fortunately, my palate managed to
detect the most prestigious names, with
Chateau Palmer
(pictured left) which tastes better every time we meet and
Chateau
Pichon-Lalande leading the pack.
Chateau
Léoville-Barton,
Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste,
Chateau
Brane-Cantenac,
Chateau
Carbonnieux,
Chateau Pontet-Canet and
Chateau La Lagune
were not far behind. These wines all displayed great complexity,
balance and persistency that marked them out from the rest.
But a blind tasting is never that
simple, because nestling in amongst this élite group were some real
surprises. Chateau
Cos-Labory, (pictured right) the eternal whipping boy of Saint
Estèphe was fresh, vigorous and lively and (gulp) trumped the rather
overdone Cos
d`Estournel (O.K. I`ll pack my bags now.) There was just too
much oak smothering what should be an excellent wine. Admittedly,
others enjoyed it far more than I, but for me, it just lacked
personality and elegance.
Then there is Chateau La Tour
Carnet, that effectively rubbished my diatribe against the 1855
Classification by proving that maybe it is still relevant. In
fact, the chateaux from the Haut-Médoc all performed well,
especially the masculine
Chateau
Cantemerle.
Chateau Dauzac also performed well for Margaux, whilst
Chateau
Dufort-Vivens proved a disappointment (again).
The tasting also proved how 1995 is
not necessarily a Right Bank vintage. Although
Chateau Larmande
performed well, the other half-dozen wines (admittedly far too small
to form a comprehensive conclusion) were lacking the harmony and
balance of many of the Left Bank wines. Having tasted Right Bank
1955`s elsewhere, I would conclude that quality is evenly spread
across the two Banks.
But these tasting always reveal
Davids that trump Goliaths. Chateau Verdignan was imbued with a
smooth texture and was "well-crafted", Chateau Coufran is a Cru
Bourgeois drinking wonderfully now, ditto
Chateau Poujeaux.
These are the type of mature clarets you should seek on restaurant
wine lists, because they offer almost as much pleasure as the more
illustrious names at a fraction of the price.
Finally the disappointments:
Chateau Talbot
certainly lost its way during the 1990's and this wine was
ennervated and past its prime. I expected
Chateau
Langoa-Barton to perform better, whilst Chateau Marquis de Terme
proves how the Margaux commune can leave you pulling your hair out
(matters have improved since then.)
Chateau
Lynch-Bages, which was probably the most crushing disappointment
for me, since my previous note had been full of praise. This must
have been an off-bottle.
Conclusion
Overall, this was an impressive set
of wines. Although occasionally the aromatics left something to be
desired, they were all well-structured, vigorous, more fleshy than
the 1996's and many displayed far more longevity that one would
expect. Could the duo echo the 1985 and 1986, the latter stubbornly
refusing to come round, whilst the 1985`s are surfeit with glorious,
voluptuous fruit? If wine is first and foremost to be enjoyed rather
than impress, are the 1985 and 1995 superior vintages?
Tasting in such harsh, almost
sterile conditions does diservice to many of these wines, especially
compared to the more upfront and immediately accessible New World
1995`s that were being appraised in a similar fashion on other
tables. However, with appropriate decanting and served with food,
many of these 1995's are going to provide a lot of pleasure over the
next few years, at a less prohibitive price than some of the 1996's
and certainly the 2000's (although it is not in that millennial
league.) Market prices have remained relatively static over the last
few years, so I would recommend you to using the
wine-searcher.com links
to find stockists and land yourself a bargain.
The last word goes to blind
tasting. Our small but perfectly formed group of erudite tasters
found some of these wines difficult to agree upon. Intriguingly,
there were almost two camps of opinion, governed by the direction we
were tasting in (i.e. left to right or right to left.) The
magazine's most praised wine was in fact
Chateau
d`Angludet, which received a modest score from myself. Wine:
such a fickle pursuit.
Now, where is that Readers' Digest
coupon - I am within one postage stamp of becoming a millionaire.
© 2006 Neal Martin. Used by
permission. All rights reserved. Visit
wine-journal.com , an independent site dedicated to fine wine.
