The report looks at the 2008 Vintage in Bordeaux. This was a cooler, later, yet sunny year that produced concentrated, masculine, and at times, austere wines.
The key factors in the growing season were a rainy spring that produced plenty of mildew pressure as well as negatively affected yields. This was followed by a sunny, cool, dry summer, and a warm, Indian summer that numerous vignerons commented saved the vintage. The great weather in September and October allowed estates to push harvest back into late October, and the result was historic hang time and rock-solid phenolic ripeness.
Now at 10-years after the vintage, the wines are starting to show some maturity, particularly on the Right Bank, yet the top Cabernet Sauvignon dominated wines of the Left Bank and the Graves region are still on the early slopes of their drinking plateau. While these wines can lack some exuberance and opulence, they have concentrated, classic, focused profiles that will appeal to the traditionalist out there.
While the vintage clearly doesn’t rise to the levels of 2000, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2016, it’s a step up over the majority of the intermediary vintages and certainly has a style all its own.