2021 Bordeaux Vintage

A wet winter gave way to a pleasant start to April, and bud break became widespread in early April. Severe frost struck on the nights of April 7 and 8, with temperatures below minus 5 C, and no appellation was spared. Mid-flowering came on June 10, a week later than the 20-year average. Storms in the week of June 16 brought record rainfall and localised hail, mildew spread, and showers continued into a grey, cool July. It was the coolest summer since 2014. The dry white harvest began on August 28 in the Sauternes region. The red harvest started much later than in previous vintages: Merlot from around September 25 into the first week of October, Cabernet Sauvignon after it, ripening until mid-October. Yields were on average much lower than 2020, and the crop was forecast below 4 million hectolitres, against 4.4 million the year before.

• Wet winter, bud break widespread in early April, then severe frost on the nights of April 7 and 8, below minus 5 C
• Mid-flowering on June 10, a week later than the 20-year average; record rainfall and localised hail in the week of June 16
• Showers and mildew into a grey, cool July; the coolest summer since 2014
• Dry whites from August 28, Merlot from around September 25, Cabernet Sauvignon ripening until mid-October; yields on average much lower than 2020

The 2021 forecast was below 4 million hectolitres, against 4.404 million in 2020 and a ten-year average of 4.940 million. Sauvignon Blanc was particularly hard-hit in Bordeaux. Emmanuel Cruse, co-owner of Chateau d'Issan, said "everybody is concerned about the yield, because of the mildew and the frost", yet d'Issan itself expected around 40 hectolitres per hectare, slightly up on the year before, because mildew issues there were relatively light and the frost largely hit vines in the Arsac area that are not used for the grand vin. At Chateau Pedesclaux in Pauillac, where Cruse is also general manager, yields were expected to be down by around 30 percent versus 2020. As Cruse put it, "if you ask 10 people you will get 10 different answers."

Christophe Chateau said quality was going to be good, with the reds good but not as good as 2019 and 2020, and that it was really too early to say for the whites. At Chateau Canon, technical staff needed to be extra-vigilant for the grapes coming in, though the Chateau said "The Merlots that we collect are nevertheless of great aromatic expression and complexity." BKWine Magazine found that in Bordeaux the sorting tables had been put to good use, and that those who had bought expensive sorting machines had not regretted the investment. Arnaud Thomassin at Chateau de France in Pessac-Leognan promised fresh and aromatic white wines with a good acidity. The CIVB said Bordeaux did not have enough white wine for the following year, so prices were going to increase.