Right Bank producers claim the 2008 vintage has produced ‘miraculous’ quality but fear there is no market for their wine.

Wineries at the first 2008 tasting in London said they were pleased by the results of the vintage, despite a poor spring and summer. Jean-Baptiste Bourotte of Pomerol producer Clos du Clocher admitted a dry and sunny September had saved the vintage from ‘disaster’.

‘We are very optimistic with the quality of the wine and we think everybody will agree but it will still be very difficult to find a market for them,’ said Dr Alain Raynaud, president of the Cercle du Rive Droite, an association of producers from Bordeaux’s Right Bank.

Yields were down 20-25% on average increasing production costs but producers realise they cannot afford to raise their prices. ‘We will lose money for sure because we have to lower our prices but Bordeaux has been making a lot of mistakes. We have to be more acessible, less arrogant with our prices and listen to what customers have to say,’ added Raynaud.

The Merlot-dominated barrel samples showed fresh acidity and sweet black fruit with some drinking well already. ‘The wines are very promising when you consider the difficulties they had during the growing season’, Richard Bampfield MW told decanter.com

‘Just because they are producing great wines, doesn’t mean the market wants to buy them. They have to give the market reasons to buy it other than lowering the price,’ he added.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).