Earlier ripening Pomerol took the full blast of this hot, dry year.
Earlier ripening Pomerol took the full blast of this hot, dry year. The vine stressed and blocked in zones of sandy-gravel soils, the leaves withering and in certain extremes even falling off. Maturity was thus affected resulting in some wines with hard, dry tannins, dilution or occasionally an alcohol ‘burn’. That being said it’s certainly not a disaster as had earlier been predicted. There are few wines with aggressive, vegetal notes and the harvest appears generally clean. Those who worked assiduously in the vineyard have produced attractive fruit, even in the ‘lesser’ terroirs off the Pomerol plateau (Bellegrave, Taillefer). The stars, generally with a greater percentage of clay soils (Petrus, Trotanoy), have produced truly stunning wines. It’s a year to be selective.
