Jancis Robinson MW has published her scores on the Bordeaux 2009s, following the annual tasting event organised by recently retired Bordeaux négocient Bill Blatch in Southwold. The table below collates some of her scores for Left Bank and Right Bank wines, with the First Growths at the top of the table.
Although Robinson mentions tasting ‘many great bottles’ in her notes, her scores may seem a little low for what is considered as a historically great vintage. They certainly don’t include the plethora of top scores given during in-bottle tastings last year by Robert Parker (his ‘perfect’ 2009s are marked on the below table with an asterisk). For Robinson, it is Mouton (‘real energy here’) that is the best of the Left Bank 2009s. Nevertheless, her tasting notes acknowledge Latour as ‘favourite of the group’, although she awards its second wine a higher score. Forts Latour far-outperforms the other second wines of the Firsts, which receive several of the lower scores.
Over on the Right Bank, Clinet and L’Eglise Clinet were the only wines to receive 19 points. Petrus and Ausone also scored highly. For all of the scores and notes from the tasting visit www.jancisrobinson.com.
Come on Liv-Ex - how many times do I have to remind you that there are other wines apart from reds in Bordeaux? Dry whites were not great in 2009 but the Sauternes certainly were and Jancis correctly assessed them as amongst the best wines of the Southwold tasting. In fact Pauillac, Pomerol and Sauternes were, a little bird tells me, the stand out appellations with the greatest consistency in Sauternes.
Many of the duplicate Sauternes samples from the tasting passed my way and some are still in my fridge as I speak. They are sensationally rich with great acidity too - easily the best vintage since 2001 with an unique character all of its own. The wines deserve more coverage!
Posted by: Steve Webb | 01 February 2013 at 02:50 PM
She's lost it !!
Every other major critic scores latour the best ...period ... She reckons les forts is better than latour ..?
Class act ... !!
Posted by: Frederick Funkmesiter | 01 February 2013 at 02:23 PM