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Average Scores of all Estates within a Region

The above chart represents the average of the scores for all the Bordeaux wineries, by wine growing region (AOC in French). The districts are compared in relative to the best region on a 100 points scale. For more details on a specific chateau, please use our "Wine Search" engine at the right hand's side of each page. This tool is extremely useful to pick the best wines for Bordeaux Futures offerings and wine auctions.  

Especially up to harvest and during the harvest, the weather in 2006 was miles away from being advantageous for all districts in Bordeaux. Winter 2006 was relatively calm and with moderate temperatures. However, March 2006 was the rainiest month in 30 years, while April and May experienced moderate rainfall and quite high temperatures for spring. June was unusually dry and hot, so flowering went quickly and as scheduled, and without any issues at all. Until the end of July, 2006 vintage looked like it would repeat last year’s astonishing success, but then problems began creeping in. August was the coldest month compared with last 20 years average, without much sun and very little rain. September started with very hot, sunny and humid weather, followed by ten rainy days. And then came sunshine and hot weather again for the remaining days of September. October was unstable and mixed from the very beginning sunshine and rain. (Izak Litwar)

The bud-burst was delayed and spun-out by the cold night-time temperatures of April. Some had burst around 1st-2nd, others not until 18th or so. Late budding need not mean a lower quality vintage. But the implication now was that we were likely going towards a traditional style.

It is at this time that the embryo bunches can be approximately counted, and it quickly became clear that the yield was not going to be very big, just like in ’02 and ’03. During this laborious budding period, there was a localised frost on the morning of 11th April. It was not a very significant frost, but was just one more factor towards the naturally low yield of the 2006.

May began and continued regularly quite warm with the vines nicely watered by heavy showers on 8th and 9th. The flowering started with a bang, accelerating as the temperature increased into a heat-wave. It was quickly over in the 30°+ totally fine weather up to 15th June. There was some “coulure” caused by the cold end-of-May nights on the early Merlots and whites, estimated at around 20%, but in the end was not cried over too much as it seemed to aerate the bunches even more and to be a further contribution to the naturally low yield of the year, making costly crop-thinnings even less necessary.

June, with its six thunder-storms ranged from totally dry in the Médoc to only half the normal in Sauternes. By now, the Spring rainfall had been absorbed. The vines looked great, but the grass by the side of the roads was going yellow. The second half of June remained resolutely dry, apart from fvery localised storms which only really brought any water to Graves, Sauternes and the Entre-Deux-Mers, the rest of the region, especially the Médoc, remaining totally dry. And temperatures, although slightly less than the first half, remained resolutely in the upper 20s. Bordeaux was bracing for another arid Summer.

The main feature of July was just pure heat and drought. The month’s mean temperature was a massive 4°C over the 85-year average. The heat-wave started right from 1st July with a two-day blast of 35°C. It then “cooled” to the high 20s for seven days, after which it resumed for 19 consecutive days, the longest heat-wave on record (August ’03 had been “only” 13 days, ’76: 15 days). What is the effect of early heat? Before the grapes have changed colour, they are not yet able to build up sugar in the same way that they would in a hot August, and some even say that only the skin-tannins can be transformed at this stage.

Then, as from 1st August, the entire situation changed. The high pressure subsided, allowing a whole series of weak depressions to come in over Europe, not producing much rain, just a series of dull, drizzly, cool days. And that was the way the whole of August would turn out to be. The effect on the bunches was very obvious. The grapes swelled from the tiny hard berries they had been at the end of July, especially after the locally heavy rain of 27th - 29th August. From now on, rot was to be never far away. In the space of a month, the mood had gone from making another ’05 to saving the vintage. It was now essential to get some good dry weather.

Just like in ’96, the change of month brought a dramatic change of weather conditions, with the Azores high pressure system ballooning out over Europe and bringing warm air into the region. Temperatures immediately spiralled from the low 20s to the 30s, creating the hottest series of September days since the scorcher year 1921!

Some early Pessac-Léognan whites had started their harvest at the end of August. Most started now in these first fabulous days of September and most had finished by the time the weather changed on 11th. This dry white harvest came in regularly ripe, with little rot, good sugar levels and nicely refreshing acidities. It was felt this would be a banner year for dry whites.

Now it was time for the red harvest to start. The early-ripened estates, especially in Pomerol and the Graves, harvested their Merlots the week of 11th, most of the St Emilion and Médoc Merlots the following week of 18th. Alas, the high pressure system chose this critical time to subside and allow a series of storms and fronts to come through. This rain was just too much, ripening the Merlots without concentrating them and pinching their tannins. It also obliged many estates to harvest Merlots that were just short of optimum phenolic ripeness. Some of the Merlots continued to be picked well into the improving weather of the month’s end, and some of the Right Bank habitual late-pickers, by dint of their exceptionally manicured vineyards, managed to push through even to early October. But generally, it was a race against time to get the Merlot harvest in before it rotted, followed quickly by some rapidly deteriorating Cabernet Francs around 25th. Strangely, it was not the deeper gravel soils that escaped the rot risk the most. The heavier clay soils seemed to do better, a real exception to the rule.

Now it was time to think about the Cabernet Sauvignons. Of course, they had swelled in August, but had nicely re-concentrated early September. Most wineries had planned to start on Monday 2nd October but several didn’t want to take the risk and considered they were ripe enough anyway, and started in the warm sunshine of the last week of September. The first week of October continued fair and relatively warm with night-time temperatures down as a safeguard, so the main body of the Cabs could come in at a comparatively leisurely pace during the whole week.

It was during this week also that Sauternes enjoyed its best botrytis. Most Sauternais had finished their harvest by now, with a very satisfactory third and sometimes fourth “trie”, whilst others continued through the adequately fine second week of October to produce decent but not the best musts of the vintage. (Winedine)

Our classification shows that the Pomerol appellation was the most successful region this year. The average scores for all the properties (39) of the Pomerol area reached a record average figure of 90.6 pts surpassing any past record. Is this observable fact due to the increased quality of the wines or to a widespread scoring inflation phenomenon within the critics?
 

The other excelling appellation in 2006 is Saint-Julien for which its now legendary steadiness is once again rewarded. These areas are closely followed by Pauillac and Pessac-Leognan. Saint-Emilion produced some of the best wines in 2006, but the region's overall performance seem somewhat irregular. Saint-Estephe and Margaux presented very fine wines too, but the overall results of these areas are somewhat inconsistant. By and large, the performance for Medoc, Listrac, Moulis, Haut-Medoc and other Satellites Right bank areas, although showing excellent results, are slightly below of the general average.

 TOP

In 2006, 114 wineries have recorded average grades above 90! Such an abundance of "stratospheric" scores has never been noted before! Here's a comparison of the evolution of the number of average grades with 90+ and 95 points or more over a ten years period (1997-2006):

It also should be noted that the standard deviation of the scores measuring the divergences between the critics is particularly low in 2006. This means that a broad consensus was found on the quality of the reviewed wines. Finally, is 2006 an exceptional year for Bordeaux? Does this result really indicate that the number of great quality wines has dramatically increased due to new winemakers, better viticulture techniques and better equipment? Or are the critics globally more indulgent than they were only 5 or 10 years ago? These issues will remain open until we form our own opinions glass in hand!

For more details, please refer to the TOP Price to Quality picks and to our stastistical analysis on actual and predicted prices.

Dry White Wines
Conditions were perfectly suited to the production of dry white wines: the cool weather in August preserved the acidity which is so important to maintain the fresh, zesty character of these wines, while the burst of September heat ripened the grapes beautifully. The wines are concentrated, aromatic, beautifully structured and as exciting as we have seen for many years.

Sauternes - Barsac
Not quite such good news for the sweeter white wines however. Sauternes, as in 1997, has been battling to eliminate the “aigre” bad rot, grapes and even bunches that had gone beery after the wine-flies, which love such hot damp conditions, had punctured the skins and sent the juice volatile. A first trie during the early September fine weather was mostly to clean out inappropriate grey rot, though various subsequent pickings through to early October yielded some good botrytis. Overall however the wines tasted en primeur do not show the exceptional qualities of 2001, 2003 and 2005.

Red Wines: Right Bank
The early parts of the Right Bank - such as Cheval Blanc and the gravel plateau of Pomerol - had to choose whether to pick their merlot before the rain when perhaps not quite physiologically ripe, or to risk waiting. The best decision may have been to do a bit of both, and there are some very fine wines here to prove the point. The later parts of the Right Bank which had to wait until after the rain were less successful. Without considering 2006 a great vintage throughout the Right Bank in the 1998 mould, there are some individual wines which do belong alongside 1990, 1995 and 2000.

Red Wines: Left Bank
The Médoc merlots were a little more affected by the late September rains, so most chateaux used them as the mainstay of their second labels. The cabernets survived the mid September showers and were ripe for picking at the very end of the month and during the first week of October. They proved to be very exciting where they ripened sufficiently and producers were meticulous about excluding anything substandard. The other crucial key to quality in 2006 lies in what has been selected for the grand vin. Many chateaux on the Left Bank are declaring a notably small percentage of the crop, and with a much higher percentage of cabernet than usual - thus only 45% of the crop has made it into Château Margaux 2006 which has 90% cabernet in the blend. The figures for Latour (38% Grand Vin and 86% cabernet) tell the same story. Stylistically the wines do not have the rounded style of recent fine vintages but refer back to the more classical structure as such as 1986 and 1988.

Red Wines : Pessac Léognan
A Merlot vintage for the Right Bank, a cabernet vintage for the left - so where did that leave the vignerons of Pessac-Léognan? They are firmly of the opinion that it is a cabernet vintage, even though they were also able to pick their merlot in good conditions. The cabernets were often stunning enabling fine and well balanced wines to be made. A very good year for this district of Bordeaux (Berry Bros & Rudd)

Winemega's precise and mathematical approach provides the most objective wine picking recommendations in total independence.

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Charles Wyplosz and Alain Bringolf for Winemega.com

Thanks to the following Contributors for their comments on the vintage:
- Tony Le Ray Cook
- Izak Litwar
- Simon Staples 

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