One of the final pieces in the 2010 puzzle, Ian D'Agata of Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar has published his somewhat discordant take on this year's primeurs. Not one to follow the crowd, D'Agata says that "claims that 2010 is another vintage of the century are overstating the case". Although he deems the latest offerings "very good, or even excellent", the vintage as a whole does not match up to his opinion of Bordeaux 2009 (which achieved four potentially perfect scores). As such, even his most highly rated wines received top scores of 96-99 points.
"In the end, 2010 produced wines more similar in structure to the 2005s and to the 1986s of the Médoc – and in complete contrast to the 2009s and 1982s. However, I am not yet convinced that 2010 is in quite the same quality class as any of those earlier vintages."
D'Agata's best-loved wines of the vintage are from the Left and Right Bank in equal measure. Haut Brion, Lafleur, Latour and Petrus lead the way at 96-99 points each, whilst the runners up include Cheval Blanc, Eglise Clinet, Lafite and Ausone (all of which were awarded 95-98 points). Notable for its absence, however, is Margaux, which was judged perfect (or potentially perfect) by Decanter, the Wine Spectator and James Suckling. The wine is clearly a point of contention as it received just 91-94 points from D'Agata and does not even make his top 30 2010s. As a result, its Liv-ex Total Score (the mean average score of all of the critics surveyed) now amounts to 97.8, down from 98.4 last week. The downgrade sees Latour secure the top spot, whilst Margaux slips into second place.
If we compare D'Agata's scores (for 27 of Bordeaux's biggest names) to those of his peers, his reviews seem particularly conservative. Based on the mid-point of each rating's barrel-score spread, James Suckling is most liberal with his 2010 scores (which average 96.1), followed by the Wine Spectator (95.5), Robert Parker (95.3) and – some distance behind – IWC (92.3).
To keep up with all of the latest news and releases from Bordeaux, follow Liv-ex on Twitter (@Livex) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/Livex.Fine.Wine.Exchange). You can also find all things Bordeaux 2010 (including scores, prices and tweets) on the Liv-ex En Primeur Pages.
IWC scores from wineaccess.com
