A rich and multifaceted vintage
It is of course impossible to sum up the 2023 vintage in a few characteristics or weather sequences. Bordeaux remains multifaceted and rich, and once again this year demonstrates its great capacity for adaptation. This year we will once again speak of a vintage that reveals places and great terroirs.
A suspense scenario
For the 2023 campaign, the end of spring was very wet, which leads Benjamin Massié of Derenoncourt Consultants to say that this was a vintage that demanded great adaptability, for organic and conventional growers alike, with quite similar spraying schedules.
The month of July was marked by a radical change of climate. The nights remained warm, however, with continuous downy mildew pressure. From 18 August we quickly switched into a heatwave sequence, lasting until 25 August. It is a vintage that can be seen as one of the hottest of the last decade. Compared with 2022, however, it lets the terroirs speak far more and can in some respects be compared with 2014.
A rather rare phenomenon, the Indian summer allowed phenolic and technological ripeness to coincide. The aromas are preserved at the end of the cycle, which makes it a very interesting vintage with aromatic balance, energy and freshness.
Yields and freshness on the mark
There is of course great variety across the whole territory, with the impacts of downy mildew or frost. One can speak of a vintage of Cabernets, and more particularly of Cabernet Sauvignon on the Left Bank. Yields are very good in many areas.
The fine fruit set often required thinning the vines in order to reach good ripeness. On the more free-draining soils there were some water stress problems. On limestone, one finds fine acidity, freshness, energy and often very ripe juices.
It is no exaggeration to say that in 2023 everything was decided in the vineyard, with in particular the need to pay particular attention to the soils from August onwards. With a whole line of thinking around cover crops that had to be pursued from June. In the vat, the balances are interesting with fine extractability of tannins and aromas.
This leads many oenologists to say that this is in reality a vintage that asks the winemaker to step back. Depending on the terroirs, the juices should not be aged in the same way. A distinction will need to be made between lots from sands or gravels with very fine, not very opulent aromatic bouquets (hence a greater proportion of amphorae) and wines from clay or limestone soils, so as not to batter the juices.
A vintage with no preset recipe
In this vintage of “aesthetes”, one will very often spot the players who respected the raw material, in extraction as in ageing.
Balances that are, all things considered, quite fragile will indeed sometimes call for a little restraint. Like 2014 or 2016, 2023 presents itself as a terroir sponge. Once again we can speak of a winegrowers’ vintage, in that 2023 demanded great adaptability, flexibility, the questioning of practices and a particularly well-suited maceration.
The whites offer perfect balance. The wines are elegant and digestible with moderate alcohol levels. The Sauvignons Blancs were picked early, in the last week of August. They show notes suggesting yellow fruits and exotic fruits and are often devoid of any vegetal character. The later Sémillons escaped the mid-September rains. They bring richness to the whole. The result is aromatic, complex and beautifully explosive wines.
The reds present themselves in finer rather than opulent attire. One will need to be very careful not to over-extract in order to preserve the silkiness and roundness of the early stages of fermentation. In the end, therefore, wines of great finesse, more classic but with fine depth. They are generally built on a fine framework of delicate tannins, provided by a favourable end of summer and a fine start to autumn. The wines generally enjoy very moderate concentrations and alcohol levels. The great terroirs are on the mark! You will be surprised by the richness and diversity of their profiles.
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