Bordeaux was very Atlantic last week. Sweeping fronts of rain … then clearer skies, a little sun on the skin, followed by a cold, star-winking night … then in comes the next front to spatter the puddles back into life and renew the original vows of mildness. As last year, I was showing guests around St Emilion, Fronsac and Pomerol: a great puddle of often sublime Merlot, spattered by raindrops of Cabernet Franc.

Much talk of 2008, of course. We seem to be back in a cycle we thought had ended for good in the early 1990s: a run of three – maybe more? – difficult vintages. Spring and the flowering hurdle in 2008 were punishing (coulure and millerandage, guaranteeing low yields).

July was better than in 2007, but then came a dismal, holiday-wrecking August at the end of which the producers’ spirit were as low as the barometer readings. The gloom was lifted, eventually, by fine early autumn weather from mid-September onwards.

The harvest was, for many, the latest since 1980: Canon-La Gaffelière finished picking on October 27th and Barde-Haut on October 29th, while the neatly pressed marcs were being forked out into trailers at Le Bon Pasteur on November 21st. “September and October were incredible,” said Hélène Garcin at Barde-Haut. “We were completely desperate in August. Now we are all smiles.”

Hélène Garcin: Now ... we are ... all smiles

The verdict from the Moueix stable (where picking finished at the newly acquired Belair on October 13th) was more circumspect. “July was good and properly Bordeaux-like,” said Frédéric Lospied, “and we had warmth from the second half of September. But you can’t talk of a special year. Come on. Let’s be serious.”

However the wines look by next March (and malolactic is only just getting underway now), the current economic blizzard is likely to deliver the most dismal en primeur scenario since the early 1970s. The only conceivable reason for reserving and paying for 2008 Bordeaux in June 2009 would be to guard allocations in case the 2009 vintage turns out to be another 2000 or 2005, but that boomtime strategy looks faintly ridiculous just now.

2008 marc at le Bon Pasteur

Life, of course, goes on. The vines have all got their socks of earth pulled up for the winter; the winter tasks of pruning, restaking and uprooting have begun again; inside the cellars we saw more evidence of pigeage and barrel-fermentation, and less of crushing and racking, than ever before. Proprietorial pockets, of course, need to be deeper than ever: a French oak barrique now sets you back E600; the price of a hectare of land in Pomerol begins at E850,000. Not everyone will survive the next year or two; not even this happy world can escape the current rout of hopes, unleashed by the unwise.

Aquitaine autumn symphonyIn tasting terms, the star vintage of the week was 2001. Always a drinker’s favourite, it may even pick up some investment interest in the light of disappointments from 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and now 2008. It’s a ripe, balanced and poised vintage of gratifying classicism and drinking qualities, with attractive mid-term potential; all it lacks is the roar of grandeur. Among the 2001s which I scored at 16.5 or more on The World of Fine Wine scale during the week were Cheval Blanc (17.5) and Le Bon Pasteur, La Fleur Pétrus, Hosanna and Troplong-Mondot (all 16.5), with a gaggle on 16, too (Beauséjour-Duffau, Canon, Clos Fourtet, Figeac and Trotanoy).

The star of a fine tasting of Fronsac 2005s, 2003s and 2000s was the magnificently sturdy Haut-Carles 2003 (17): all that cool, moist Fronsac clay came into its own in 2003. Look out, too, for Moulin-Haut Laroque (15.5) and La Rivière (14.5) in this vintage, too. Among the Fronsac 2005s, Gaby (15.5), La Vieille Cure and La Tour du Moulin (both 15) are excellent.

The onward march of progress showing up in over-performing 2004s from Canon (16), Faugères (16 – I prefer it to the Péby in this vintage for its slightly less stern articulation) and Petit Village (15.5), as well as the delicious 2005 de Lussac from the same owners as Franc Mayne and Vieux Maillet (15.5).

That Petrus ClayIt’s always a treat to taste Pétrus, of course, and the 2006 has an almost surprisingly glycerous inner glow allied to ample, tumbling tannins and a ripe yet perfumed style. It’s concentrated, structured and fresh at the finish; what’s most Pomerol, and most Pétrus, about it is the hint of chocolate and the eerie voluptuousness of the fruit (18). It’s not a depth-charge vintage (like the wondrous 1998), but it’s hardly precocious, either. If you are lucky enough to have any, forget it for a decade.

My next period of guiding will come in the first two weeks of March 2009, when I will be taking guests around the vineyards of South Australia, Victoria and Canberra. There’s the certainty of sunshine this time …

http://www.winetours.co.uk/destinations/view/27/australia

If you fancy Bordeaux’s Right Bank next autumn (and the gods owe us a good vintage in 2009), here is the link:

http://www.winetours.co.uk/tours/view/15/stars-of-the-right-bank

I won’t be your guide in 2009, but you’ll be well looked after.