The Bordeaux 2019 vintage due to be presented to the wine trade next month is shaping up to be reasonably large in volume and high in quality, according to growers interviewed at a Paris tasting.
Unusually high summer temperatures reaching into the high 30s centigrade or even exceeding 40 degrees were punctuated by rainfall in late July and also late September, bringing relief to the vines. Cool nights on the Pomerol plateau and other higher ground also helped.
While growers agreed the vintage is looking promising, the high temperatures had been some cause for concern. “The vintage was saved twice by the rain,” said Olivier Bernard of Domaine du Chevalier in Pessac-Leognan, south of the city.
“We are very hopeful,” said Benedicte Pinero of Chateau Haut-Bailly at a tasting in Paris on Feb. 4 of the recent 2017 vintage. The estate, owned by the family of the late U.S. banker Robert Wilmers, suffered frost damage to its Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in 2017, reducing output, but “in 2019 we had both quality and quantity.”
