Wine Spectator magazine has released the first of its final scores for the 2006 Bordeaux vintage, with around 15 notes for various Pomerols published ahead of the full rundown due in spring.
James Suckling, Wine Spectator's Bordeaux correspondent, also blogged on the vintage, making some rather positive noises.
"What I do know is that the 2006 Bordeaux are very good from the many of the estates…. The wines have really improved with barrel aging and show lovely perfumes, good, fresh fruit and fine tannins. Granted, some wines are hollow in their center palates. Others are diluted. But a number of wineries made as good, if not better, 2006s than their 2005s."
In that light, the notes are perhaps a little disappointing – particularly when you consider that Pomerol is widely felt to be one of the better communes in 2006. The fact that the three wines previously given 95-100 failed to hit even the bottom end of their ranges would point to the final scores, in general, being unspectacular. On the positive side, note the strong score for Conseillante – widely seen as one of the stars of the vintage. Gazin also performed very well and looks a strong value pick.
A selection of the scores is reproduced below, along with the barrel scores from Robert Parker (also expected to release his final notes this spring) and prices from Liv-ex.com.
(JS 09: James Suckling (www.winespectator.com) January 2009/ JS 07: James Suckling March 2007/ RP 07: Robert Parker (www.erobertparker.com) April 07)
All price taken from www.liv-ex.com
