The third leg of our Epic Bordeaux tasting landed us in Queenstown. Held at the Crown Plaza on the side of the lake in Queenstown, the view spectacular, with a picture-perfect day. The majority of the wines tasted were from the 2015 vintage, which has just arrived.
2015 an exceptional vintage that has been highly praised and deserves attention particularly for those intended to pop the wines in the cellar. As often happens with a great vintage, comparison to the most recent great vintages occurs, these being 2009 and 2010. 2015 however could not be more different. 2009 was a very warm vintage, the wines fruit forward and very generous. For me the 2009 wines are much more aligned to the vintage than the appellation. The 2010 vintage wines have firm acidity and a lot of concentration. One of the signatures I love of the 2015 vintage is that the appellations sign strongly in the wines, more so in fact than the vintage characters for me, you know the wines from Pauillac or St Julien for sure.
As well as the 2015 wines, we tasted a collection of wines from the 2012 and 2014 vintages. These two vintages, whilst not considered at the lofty quality level of the 2015 vintage, were somewhat overlooked on release. I have recently tasted extensively through both vintages to put together the collection of wines we tasted. While the 2015 wines are for the most part going to demand time in the cellar, the 2012 vintage is superb drinking right now, as is the 2014 vintage. The 2014s also have short term cellaring potential.
We’ve collated all the wines that we tasted to one page online here: www.glengarrywines.co.nz/bordeauxtastingproducts