Vintage

Christopher Burr reviews Bordeaux through the 20th century, through wars, pestilence, technological advances and illustrious vintages. Edmund Penning-Rowsell is quoted as saying,  “The 1900’s generally made poor wines, as the new post-phylloxera, American-grafted vines were young.  The wines I liked best came from the comparatively plentiful 1900 vintage, although a majority were made from old vines.” 

I have taken this review of Bordeaux in the 20th Century decade by decade, being an easy period to grasp, but inevitably this is a false segmentation of time, as events happen regardless of such man-made calendars.  But the overall period since 1900 is truly fascinating.  Much change was evolutionary, though some was forced through circumstance – disease and pestilence, war or even the threat of competition. 

 

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I’ve tried to identify the major forces of change, be the technological, commercial, or even led by fashion.  But then these are man-made influences.  There are people or whole families who have made a notable impact over this period; it is impossible to include them all, but I include those whose influence has been most significant.  I have not covered every single vintage in detail, but have included indicative quality tables.

Vine growing and winemaking hadn’t seen much change since the Middle Ages.  The only real advances had been in the 18th century, when barrel ageing, topping up, fining and racking were discovered as a prelude to putting wine into glass bottles, and the re-discovery of sulphur as a sterilizing agent.

The first year of the 20th century was a worrying time for the Bordeaux wine industry: costs were rising fast and prices were static if not declining.  The end of the 19th century had been a period of struggle.  Phylloxera had spread from the Midi, and by 1880 grafting vines onto American rootstock was being practiced by some properties.  The top chateaux were concerned that grafted vines would produce inferior wine, and so many other techniques were also tried, like injecting the soil with sulphur powder.  Treatment of those other scourges of the mid- and late- 1800’s – oidium (powdery mildew) and downy mildew – with Bordeaux mixture (copper sulphate) had become essential practice.  But these cures were costly and many vineyards ceased production altogether.

The densimetre was now being used to measure the sugar content of the grape must, and chapitalisation had become common for unripe vintages.  The work of Pasteur had lead to a better understanding of hygiene and vins ordinaires were being pasteurized.  And finally, one of the best-kept secrets of the time was the practice of back-blending or égalisage to provide some consistency of quality.

It is fascinating to note that at this time, irrigation both of new vines and in dry years was widespread.  An abundance of (often dilute) wine in some of these early years was treated with such a degree of scepticism by the trade that even the excellent, and certainly not dilute, 1900s were initially reviewed without much enthusiasm, leading Ducru-Beaucaillou, Pontet-Canet and Cantemerle to release their 1900s at very low prices.  The finest 1900 wines (1900 being the best vintage of the decade) were often made from old pre-phylloxera vines, for example Château Latour had still not fully replanted until the 1920s.

For the past 200 years, brokers and merchants had almost monopolized the Bordeaux wine trade.  Great merchant families from Holland, Germany and Britain had grand cellars on the Quais de Chartrons and Baccalan in Bordeaux, and the quayside of Libourne.  Names like Cruse, Calvet, Barton, Johnston, Mähler Besse, Lawton, Sichel, Kressman, Schröder & Schyler and Echenauer dominated the market, while the vineyard domains were often run by absentee landlords.  In the slumps, these “Merchant Princes” would often buy the top châteaux, becoming owner-merchants. 

A merchant would contract to buy wine from a château before knowing the quality of the vintage, but often at very low prices, a situation whose advantages could work both ways, as vintages were so unpredictable.  The merchant would carry out the élevage in barrel and the bottling.  By the 1900s, however, as a counter to fraud, and to improve quality, some châteaux would bottle the vintage themselves.  The merchants didn’t mind, even though they were charged, as it delayed the payment terms.  The châteaux also charged for sugar, if they had agreed with merchants that chapitalisation was a good thing. 

After a series of very public wine frauds the proprietors of the grands crus decided in 1901 to form the Union syndicate des Grands Crus Classé du Médoc, to promote their interests and implement some quality control standards.  The top Bordeaux properties already had the best marketing tool in wine history, with the 1855 classification.  This “seal of quality” to consumers was a point of stability that would help carry the châteaux through the coming slump of the early 1910s.


“The 1910’s?  Before my time, I’m afraid!  My most memorable bottle was a 1916 Cantenac-Brown (I believe) whose cork had fallen to the bottom and which was only kept in by lead and moss.  It wasn’t bad.”  Hugh Johnson.

Unlike the previous decade, the 1910s opened with an appalling vintage, which none of the now commonly used technological advances could help improve.  Demand remained poor and a further spate of poor vintages did little to help.  The effect on the better producers was to produce less in the hope of getting prices up.  To make matters worse, replanting was still a major drain on finances.

It became increasingly common, at this time for properties to hand over exclusivity to “merchant contractors”, at a fixed price for a number of years.  Contracts were entered into at all levels, with 30 classed growths including Lafite, Margaux and Latour, and at least eight seconds including Mouton and Palmer.  Even in Sauternes, Yquem and Filhot were contracted in 1910-1911.  The major Bordeaux négociants, led by the powerful J Calvet & Cie, held such contracts and were therefore able to dominate the trade in Bordeaux.  They also owned some 10 classed growths, plus 60 contracted châteaux, giving them immense commercial power.  These arrangements did, however, protect an industry devastated by a poor market and a run of disastrous vintages.  Prices started to rise slowly and between 1908 and 1917 rose substantially, often between 30% and 50%.

In 1914, there was the potential for a good vintage, with ideal weather conditions but no-one’s attention was fully on the wine.  By the start of harvest on 20th September, many of the key workers had been enlisted or commandeered to the Great War effort.  France declared war on 1st August; and so read the diary entry of the régisseur at Latour: “There are queues at the banks and grocers.  It is impossible to find a single gold coin at the banks.  I left with 2,500 francs in ecus and some small change for the payments to the staff.  The Bordeaux Négociant Houses haven’t a sou”.