2014 Bordeaux Vintage

After a mild, wet winter, with only 9 frost days in winter 2013-2014 against a ten-year average of 26 and January and February rainfall twice that of 2013, warm, wet days at the end of March brought budburst about 10 days earlier than the ten-year average. The vines grew fast in a warm early April. The second half of April cooled, and May alternated normal and chilly spells; violent storms with hail struck on May 19, with more than 30 mm falling at Listrac-Medoc. Flowering began at the end of May in cool, damp conditions, causing coulure on early Merlot, but the weather improved from June 4 and a dry, warm first half of June sped flowering along. Mid-flowering came on June 7, four days behind the ten-year average. Summer never settled. The first half of July was cool with frequent rain; the second half turned hot, with peaks above 35 C and storms with hail on July 19 and 20 in the Libournais and Entre-Deux-Mers. With no water stress, the vines kept growing through veraison, which reached its midpoint on August 13, eight days behind the ten-year average. August was one of the coolest since 2000, with no day reaching 30 C, and mildew and green leafhoppers attacked the foliage in many places. By the end of August, the red crop was in worse shape than in 2013. Then summer finally arrived. September was hot, sunny and almost rainless, with maximum temperatures 3.8 C above normal and just over 20 mm of rain, less than a quarter of normal, falling on September 17 and 18. October stayed warm, with 40 mm of rain against a normal 90. Six weeks of sunshine followed, from the last week of August to the first week of October, though the week ending October 10 was overcast and at times rainy. The harvest was relatively late but ran in excellent weather. Dry white picking in Graves and Pessac-Leognan began at the end of the first week of September. Merlot picking started in the last week of September, and Cabernet and Petit Verdot picking ran a little past mid-October. Yields ran in a more normal range of around 2.5 to 3 tons per acre, and reports of 30 to 35 hl/ha at many estates were common, rather than the 40 to 45 hl/ha originally projected.

Rainfall varied sharply across the region. The late July storms fell more heavily on the right bank of the Garonne than the left, and the northern Medoc, with little rain, was the most favored. August rain was higher in Saint-Emilion than in Graves or the Medoc, and even within the Medoc it ranged from 82 mm at Margaux to 56 mm at Saint-Julien and 61 mm at Saint-Estephe. Gavin Quinney was most impressed by Saint-Julien and Pauillac, and to a lesser extent Saint-Estephe; he found Margaux less consistent, with more rain than the north, and seriously good wines in both Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, with many Cabernet Franc-rich wines showing well, among them Ausone, Cheval Blanc, Lafleur, Le Dome and Canon-La-Gaffeliere. Wine Spectator gave the early lead to the Left Bank, where nature favored Cabernet Sauvignon and warmer, gravelly soils. Pomerol saw a bit more rain in September and October.

The cool July and August and fine September suited dry whites. In Graves, Sauvignon Blanc was picked September 6 to 12 and Semillon September 12 to 20, with much higher acidity than in 2013. White yields were modest, especially for Semillon. In Sauternes and Barsac, the heat and dry September delayed noble rot until light rains on October 8 and 9 set it off, and most of the crop was picked in the second half of October in ideal conditions. The ISVV called the dry whites excellent, fruity, dense and backed by acidity unusual for Bordeaux, and the sweet wines of high quality, though quantities were very small, often under 10 hl/ha. "We basically had August in October," Aline Baly of Chateau Coutet in Barsac told Wine Spectator.

The ISVV found the 2014 reds clearly better than the 2013s. The Merlots were medium in color, fruity and fairly fleshy, with clay soils giving the most convincing lots, while the Cabernets, which benefited most from the late season, were elegant, complex and denser than the Merlots. Merlot berries were larger than in the previous five vintages, and acidity ran above average, a normal result of a cool summer. Vegetal notes may not have fully faded on nitrogen-rich or poorly drained plots. Red alcohol ranged from 12.5% to 14.5%, mostly 13% to 13.5%. Gavin Quinney found bright fruit, refreshing acidity and a rather light tannic frame, fresh but not profound, and ranked the reds alongside or just ahead of 2001, 2006, 2008 and 2012, below 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2010. Wine Spectator called it potentially the best vintage since 2010, though not a classic-quality one. "The month of September was amazing," Frederic Faye, director at Chateau Figeac, told Wine Spectator.