Jefford on Monday: Blue moon on the Right Bank

Andrew Jefford continues the tasting of a lifetime, with Angélus, Pavie, Ausone, Cheval Blanc and Petrus from the 1998 vintage...

Last week, regular readers will recall, I was lucky enough to taste the 1998 First Growths. Here’s an account of the wines of Angélus, Pavie, Ausone, Cheval Blanc and Petrus from the same vintage, with a sip of Yquem, too, all of them tasted on the same two occasions on successive nights in Shenzhen and Nanning in late August.

The wines were purchased in Hong Kong. See last week’s Jefford on Monday for an account of the weather conditions of this very attractive vintage.

Angélus 1998

When you move from left bank to right, the framework of wine creation changes. The size of properties, to begin with, is nearly always smaller. Haut Brion is the smallest First Growth, with 48 ha planted. Angélus, by contrast, has just 34 ha of vines, and only 27 ha of these can be used for the wine which enjoys ‘Premier Grand Cru Classé A’ status. Nota bene: that’s a huge difference between the banks. Médoc First Growths can bolt on whatever morsels of land they wish to their landholdings, and then use that wine for their Grand Vin should they see fit. Not so in St-Emilion, where the classifying authorities (quite rightly, since this is a living classification rather than a historical monument) get involved, and take a close interest.The balance of grape varieties is obviously another difference, though we tend to think about Merlot first and foremost, and overlook Cabernet Franc, whose use on the Right Bank is gently rising as the climate warms. The blend of Angélus in 1998, as it happens, mirrors Haut-Brion in that both wines contain 60 per cent Merlot and 40 per cent of Cabernet. The difference is that Haut-Brion’s Cabernet is Sauvignon, whereas Angélus’s Cabernet is Franc.

The soils in St-Emilion in general are a stark contrast to those of the Médoc. Limestone is suddenly significant here, and gravels much less so; the texture of the soils is heavier than the Médoc, and the lime is mixed with various percentages of clay and sand. The altitude of the Angélus vineyards is around the 35 m mark, though some St-Emilion vineyards (like Troplong Mondot) are much higher, which is why harvesting here is generally later than it is in nearby (but lower lying) Pomerol.

I mentioned the importance of management ‘gear changes’ last week: those historical conjunctures when a new generation, a new owner or a new manager arrives, determined to invest more money, time and labour in a property, and thereby raise its reputation. This gear change came thirty years ago at Angélus, back in 1985 when Hubert de Boüard first began to run the property in his own right, free of his father’s influence.

More efforts have been made in general to lower yields on the Right Bank than on the Left, and the average yield at Angélus is 32 hl/ha — a clear contrast, you might assume, to the approach at Lafite, where (as we discovered last week) the average yield is 48 hl/ha. But wait. Planting densities on the Right Bank have traditionally been at 6,000 plants/ha, whereas the Médoc has aimed for 10,000 plants/ha. A yield of 48 hl/ha at 10,000 plants/ha would produce under half a litre of wine per vine, whereas 32 hl/ha at 6,000 plants/ha would be over half a litre per vine: in fact a higher yield. If, that is, every vineyard was fully planted, with no missing vines — but in the Médoc, there are often missing vines. In any case, Angélus has higher planting densities than the St-Emilion norm: 6,500 to 8,000 plants/ha, and these vines may then see up to three green harvests in some years. Yield questions evade easy summary.

The points to note are the fact that Angélus has a second wine, and that green harvesting and fruit sorting have long been practiced here. Michel Rolland consults — so nothing will be picked unripe, and the blending is skilful. Other key points include some cold soaking; the use of conical fermenters (now inverted) for optimum extraction; malolactic in barrique; and no more than three or four rackings in total. This provides an element of textural and flavoury wealth from lees contact, rather than the highly polished, porcelain textures which result from the three-month rackings more typical on the left bank.

The Angélus 98 is a dark wine, though now with reddish rather than purple hues. Aromatically, it was the most palpably oaky of the ten wines in the tasting. Even so, the oak is only a nuance within the generally enticing aromatic profile of autumnal warmth and soft black bramble, raspberry and sloe fruits. The palate was generous, ripe and spicy, with firm structures and ample length: pure pleasure from start to finish. Robert Parker gives the wine 96 points, having originally scored it at 93; I would give it 95. The wine won one second and one third place in Shenzhen. (13.5%)

Just published: A 21-vintage vertical tasting report on La Conseillante by Jane Anson

Pavie 1998

Within the context of what might now be considered the ‘Great Ten’, Pavie and Ausone share one quality which distinguishes them from the rest: both properties possess a suite of hill sites, from 100m down to 20m in Pavie’s case and 80m to 30m in the case of Ausone, rather than lying at a single, generally lower altitude as do the other properties. Pavie’s highest vineyards are stony limestone, with clay-limestone mid-slope and sandy clays at the bottom of the hill. At the very least, this will give Pavie and Ausone the chance to match site and variety with some subtlety, as well as balance freshness and ripeness — and not to worry overmuch about spring frosts.

The ‘gear-change’ factor is very important in this vintage in the case of Pavie: 1998 was the year the property changed hands. In February; the dead of winter. There was little that Gérard Perse could do about vineyard plantings prior to vintage — and apparently they were in some disarray (25 per cent of the vines were missing). He did, though, start the restoration work, begin a new barrel cellar, and purchase new fermentation vats. There were also some adjustments to the precise landholdings at the behest of the authorities. Today, Pavie has a second wine and plantings (on 37 ha) of some 7,000 plants/ha with yields of 35 hl/ha, whereas the planting densities were lower and yields were as high as 60 hl/ha when Perse bought in early 1998.

Hard pruning, a stringent green harvest and a 30 per cent saignée: these were some of the elements Gérard Perse used to create his début vintage (which, Petrus aside, had the highest percentage of Merlot in the tasting: 80 per cent, with both Cabernets providing the balance). It is, truly, a great success, especially as a turnaround vintage: as dark or darker than Angélus, with less red and more purple at this stage; scents of baked plum, frankincense, wild mushroom; and a deeply plummy but subtle, finely upholstered and not notably sweet palate, textured and long, full of light and shade. Robert Parker gives it 95 but I would go to 96. The wine achieved one second place in Shenzhen and one third place in Nanning.

As a footnote, it should be pointed out that both Angélus and Pavie were included in this tasting on the basis of their promotion to the A class of the St-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé classification (alongside Ausone and Cheval Blanc) in 2012. This promotion was not uncontroversial; disparaging remarks have been made about both by Bordeaux insiders, at least off the record. On the basis of our two 1998 tastings, though, both wines seemed amply to merit their new status, and showed no ‘genetic’ inferiority to the other wines sampled. (13.5%)

Ausone 1998

Size-wise, this is the minnow of the tasting: just 7 ha. The opinion held of Latour’s L’Enclos over on the left bank, though, is generally held of Ausone on the right: that there is no terroir hereabouts greater than this. Despite its tiny size, it has had a second wine since 1997; new plantings here are at 12,600 plants per ha — even denser than those of the Médoc. It has the oldest average vine age of any of the Great Ten (around 50 years); I doubt any of their peers’ vineyards are tended more carefully than these. This is probably the wine based on the lowest yields per vine of any in the Great Ten. The gear change here came in 1996, which was when the Vauthier family assumed complete control of Ausone. Since then, it has been a model of purity and classicism.

It is not in any way an easy or a facile wine, and the key to this may be its Cabernet Franc vines, deeply rooted in limestone soils and bedrock: they already outnumber Merlot in the plantings here (55:45), and the plan is to take Cabernet Franc up to 70 per cent of plantings. The 1998 wine has a lower percentage of Merlot, notably, than does Haut-Brion (48 per cent compared to 60 per cent in Haut-Brion 1998); 52 per cent of Ausone 1998 is Cabernet Franc. It’s a dark wine, with earthy, broody scents; the fresh woodland plums of youth are now turning smokier, even stonier. The flavours are dark everything: plums, chocolate, hedgerow fruits, sun-warmed ebony wood, liquorice and other root spices. It evidently has many years ahead. It won four second places and a top place in Shenzhen, with two third places and a second in Nanning. Robert Parker gives it 98, up from an initial score of 94; I’d give it 97. (13%)

Cheval Blanc 1998

As at Pavie, 1998 was a gear-change year at Cheval Blanc, since this was the vintage in which Bernard Arnault and Albert Frère purchased Cheval Blanc. In contrast to the Pavie acquisition by Gérard Perse, this happened after harvest. Resources then became available which have permitted the building of what is perhaps Bordeaux’s most beautiful new vinification cellar, as well as fastidious soil studies carried out by Kees van Leeuwin, parcellisation and vineyard renovations. Anyone fortunate enough to be able to follow Cheval Blanc, though, might not notice a gear change in the style of the wines. In part this is because these changes take time, and in part because Pierre Lurton had already been in situ since 1991; the style parameters (Lurton’s ideal: ‘the silk scarf’) remained unchanged. Like Lafite over on the left bank, of course, that ideal of gentleness and classical elegance dissuades winemakers and consultants from the more obviously showy displays which generally result from strenuous efforts to up quality. The stated yields here are 35 hl/ha and plantings are at 6,000 plants/ha. (For the record, Arnault sold his stake in Cheval Blanc to LVMH in 2009 for €238 million.)

The 1998 wine is slightly higher in Cabernet Franc than is Ausone (55 per cent as opposed to 52 per cent) but its style is utterly different. If Ausone is night, Cheval Blanc is day; if Ausone is dark chocolate, this is the milk version. It is, effectively, a very different terroir: all the vineyards lie at 34-38 m, and there are three different soil types: clay (40 per cent), gravel (40%) and sand (20 per cent). Unusually, the Merlot here is planted in the gravels (there are none at Ausone) and the Cabernet Franc on clay.

The Cheval Blanc 1998 isn’t the most deeply coloured of the wines, though it remains dark black-red. It has a subtle and beguiling nose: creamy, flowery, elegant, hinting at raspberry liqueur, warm earth, havana leaf, undergrowth and truffle; it’s less palpably oaky than the other wines. You smell a wine, yet with Cheval Blanc, somehow, you might also be smelling a landscape. In the mouth, it has the requisite fine-wine intensity, yet there is a becoming softness and gentleness to it, too: supremely drinkable. The fruits are still ringing and deep, the acids singing, the tannins fresh; notes of game and tobacco bring complexity; a creaminess governs all. Robert Parker gives it 100 points, up from an initial score of 93, and I would give it 99: my wine of the tasting. It was very popular with our guests, scoring two firsts, a second and a third in Shenzhen, and five firsts and two thirds in Nanning. (13%)

Petrus 1998

Our final wine was Petrus: the second smallest property of the Great Ten (11,5 ha), the only one to be almost exclusively planted with Merlot (there is just three per cent Cabernet Franc), and the only property among the Great Ten to continue to produce no second wine. Despite lying in the best sector of Pomerol, most of which is gravelly, Petrus’s soils are almost pure clay, and this is often said to be the key to its qualities.

Christian Moueix looked after the property for many years on behalf of his elder brother Jean-François, this arrangement coming to a definitive end in 2011 — but without any particular sign of a gear change; Olivier Berrouet took over from his father Jean-Claude as winemaker in 2008. It’s a classically made wine, without a panoply of modern innovations: no cold soak, fermented in concrete tanks (as is Cheval Blanc), aged in new wood in good or great vintages like 1998, and racked every three months. Christian Moueix disliked the Right Bank fashion for what he saw as exaggerated ripeness. Some alleged that Petrus was picked too soon — but Moueix counter-claimed that Petrus ripened earlier than many of its neighbours, since fastidious crop-thinning over the summer had eliminated all of the late clusters.

Whatever the truth, there isn’t even a whisper of under-ripeness in the 1998 Petrus. It’s still a saturated black-red in colour, with what at this stage are rather gruff or reserved aromas: dense plums in fresh, earthy style, and some quiet, dark spices. It’s very intense and deep on the palate, even monolithic: long, resonant, thundering, an exercise in gathered force. A hugely impressive wine, in sum, but it’s hard to reach any conclusion other than that it isn’t fully mature yet, and still has decades ahead. At some point during those decades, one assumes, it will begin to achieve the murmuring articulacy which eludes it at present, but which Cheval Blanc so conspicuously has.

Robert Parker gives it 100, up from an initial score of 98; I would give it 98 at present. It was the most-liked wine in Shenzhen, with five first places, two seconds and three thirds, while it equalled Lafite in Nanning, with two firsts, five seconds and two thirds. (13.5%)

Postscript: Yquem 1998

We also enjoyed Yquem ‘98 after all the reds, as a pure treat — which it was. I didn’t score it, and we had nothing with which to compare it, but for pure sensual joy and aromatic intrigue, I found it the most compelling wine of the night. Its scents of lanolin, white truffle, cream, orange and mango were viscerally irrestistable; its flavours were luscious, gratifying and extravagant, yet fresh and poised, too. If I could have taken one wine up to my bedroom afterwards, this would have been it.

Read all of Andrew Jefford’s columns here

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