It did not take me long to realize that the 2008 vintage was dramatically better than I had expected. It had all the qualities that make an excellent and in some cases, a great vintage so special - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
At 10.30pm last night, Robert Parker’s scores for the 2008 vintage in Bordeaux were published on the website of The Wine Advocate. In short, he confesses considerable surprise at the quality of the 2008 and mirrors our own approach by picking out various exceptional wines. He comments, as we did in our vintage introduction, that it is ‘absurd to try and judge the quality of the vintage before a single grape is harvested’.
He is not shy of affording 2008 serious praise, writing ‘it had all the qualities that make an excellent, and in some cases great vintage so special: exceptionally dark opaque colors, gorgeously ripe fruit, stunning purity almost across the board, great freshness (because it was a cool year), slightly higher acids than normal, and remarkable density and concentration.’
We are still awaiting various releases, and clients are advised to pay particular attention to Pomerol. Parker adds that ‘Pomerol seems to be the epicenter of many extraordinary wines, I would even go so far as to say the 2008 Pomerols eclipse/ surpass the quality of the 2005s, 2001s and 2000s.Furthermore, he says of St. Emilion: ‘An extremely strong vintage, it appears to be a notch below 2005, but it is better than any other vintage of the last decade except 2000.’
