Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) North American 2020 Vintage
Release Tour Chicago Preview Tasting 2023
The
UGC Bordeaux (Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB)),
annual release tour visited Chicago this week unveiling/showcasing their
2020 vintage release wines. The Union is the association of 130
members of the top premier estates from the most prestigious Bordeaux
appellations.
This
year's North American tour visited Toronto, New York, Washington DC, Chicago,
LA , Seattle and San Francisco.
As in previous years, members of our 'Pour Boys'
wine group (left) helped conduct the event in Chicago.
This year, after a Covid disrupted alternate site last year at Chicago Union Station Grand Hall, which actually was delayed to June, as in years past, returned to the Drake Hotel in the
magnificent grand Gold Coast Ballroom (shown below).
The Pour Boys serve as volunteers, working with the hosts Mike Wangbickler, Kat and the Balzac
Communications team, and the UGCB Bordeaux events team of Chloe Morvan and
Marie Damouseau.
We help prepare the room and the wines, checking in trade
registrants, and standing in for producers who faced travel or other
disruptions, presenting and pouring their wines.
We start early
in the day unpacking and distributing the wines, carefully setting up
each wine station for the arrival of the producers' and their
representatives for presenting and pouring the wine during the afternoon
session.
Several times over the years, several producers or their representatives were
delayed in travel or had other disruptions and we were called in to service to
pour their wines, hence we earned our moniker, the '
Pour Boys'.
This was our fourteenth year working this gala
annual event.
As usual, close to a hundred producers were represented at the event that was
attended by over five hundred members of the trade, merchants, hospitality and media.
As is their custom in
the third week of January, this annual roadshow is a marathon trek across North
America by the producers and their representatives offering wine professionals
and oenophiles the chance to meet the Bordeaux principles, winemakers and
commercial directors. As I've written in previous years, we appreciate the investment in time and
effort expended by the producers and their brand ambassadors to visit
Chicago. It provides a wonderful opportunity to meet them firsthand and discuss
their perspectives on their brand, approach to crafting their style, their
history, businesses, and their vintages including, of course, the current
release.
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Overcast skies and early morning snow
through windows of Gold Coast Ballroom
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As collectors and holders of a not-insignificant collection of Bordeaux
wines dating back four decades, we Pour Boys hold as many as several dozen or more
vintages of some of these labels. Meeting the owners, family members,
producer / winemaker / representatives of these great Chateaux is a
great privilege and offers a collector the chance to learn more about
their investment and wines.
As
such, I tend to focus on and taste those wines that I know well and
hold verticals (multiple vintages of the same label), of which my wine
buddies and I have holdings. Shown left, Chateau Lynch Bages and Ormes
de Pez.
The new Lynch Bages winery was under construction
during our visit in 2019. It is now open and in production with this
2020 release being the first vintage produced in the new state of the
art facility.
Marking
four centuries of history and the culmination of four years’ hard work,
the 2020 vintage, the first in the renovated cellars is commemorated in a new label design for the vintage.
The new cellars and vat room, were designed by architect Chien Chung Pei to put emphasis on natural light, functionality and innovative technologies. As such a
light iridescent shadow suggesting the new building is set on the
architectural architecture, while the vintage is handwritten by Chien
Chung Pei to commemorate the collaboration.
Despite the inclement weather, this years event was well attended to a full house (shown below).
Earlier UGCB and related events are featured
in earlier unwindwine blogposts.
Grand Cru Bordeaux 2019 Vintage Release Tour Chicago
UGCB 2017 Release Tour Chicago
After working to set up the event, register attendees and fill in for
late arriving producers' due to travel delays, we were able to partake
of the release tasting.
As usual, we focused on the producers that we
own and collect, with
particular interest in those that we visited during our last trip to
Bordeaux, as well
as those we are targeting for our next or futures visits to the region.
The 2020 vintage is another great year for Bordeaux. The year opened with a mild start triggering an early bud break and even flowering thanks to a warm and dry month
of May. Early June
brought frequent rainfall which provided reserves of water during nearly two-month period
of drought which began from mid-June, continuing well into August.
While it was very warm in
the first part of the year, significantly warmer than 2018 or 2019, the heart of the summer however was marginally cooler than those excessively hot years. Taken as a whole, 2020
was as warm as the baking 2018, but not as intensely hot during the summer.
By early August, a welcome flurry of rain showers swept over the
region breaking the prolonged period of drought before entering a dry and sunny September, which pushed the grapes
into their final period of ripening. The
earlier ripening Merlot benefited from the superb conditions of an early
September harvest.
Mid-September light rain falls
provided a final infusion of freshness to the Cabernet grapes. Only those with late ripening plots
of Cabernet Sauvignon were left in a rush to bring them in in before the
concerning forecast pertaining to storm Alex at the beginning of October.
The overall
harvesting conditions of 2020 were also
perfectly suited for the earlier ripening Merlot grape, while the
Cabernet
Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon vines picked towards the end of September
when warm winds imposed an evaporation effect on the grapes, resulting
in unusually small
berries with high levels of tannins. This translated into wines
with deep colors, very concentrated flavors, and abundant, well-ripened,
fine-grained tannins.
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Anne-Francoise Quie Château Rauzan-Gassies
Lise Latrille - Château Prieure Lichine
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For
the white wines of
2020, the effects of the intense summer heat was compensated by the
moisture reserves from the spring showers, producing dry whites which
were less
aromatic than in 2019, but with plenty of complexity and vibrant
acidity.
Although the grapes had reached a perfect level of
ripeness by early September, the crucial rain showers did not arrive until
October, which meant that only the most patient and diligent growers were
rewarded by the small harvesting window with lower levels of wine produced.
James
Suckling stated,
“The 2020 vintage is another great year for Bordeaux, marking a
rare trilogy of excellent vintages that produced wines at the same or very
close quality level across the board from great named chateaux to lesser-known
estates.”
Jancis Robinson decreed, “Some stunning wines have been produced in 2020. On the Left
Bank, they tend to be made by producers who can afford to be extremely
selective in their final blends. There is a host of very successful wines on
the Merlot-dominated Right Bank too. I have found myself falling back in love with St-Émilion”
thanks to a continuing trend where “wines are so much fresher and more
expressive than they used to be.”
Jane
Anson, reporting for
Decanter says, ‘I would say 2018 is the most exuberant, 2020 the most
structured and concentrated, while 2019 combines both and for me is the
strongest of the three – certainly the most consistent.’ She also points out
that ‘Yields overall were around 25% lower than in 2019, particularly with
Cabernet Sauvignon but also Cabernet Franc in many cases."
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Lilian Barton-Sartorius - Châteaux
Leoville and Langoa Barton |
The event is
sponsored by the
Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, (UGCB)
and is hosted and orchestrated by
Balzac Communications,
boutique wine marketing and communications consultancy firm in Napa, under the
leadership of Mike Wangbickler
.
As is the custom, the afternoon session is for the benefit of the press and trade and wine
professionals, and in Chicago, the evening session in Chicago was hosted by merchant partner
Binny's Beverage Depot, the Chicago-land wine
superstore, offering tickets to the evening session to their valued customers
and the public. This year, over four hundred collectors and vinophiles
registered for the even.
My perspective was that many of the wines showed better this
year being more approachable at this early age with expressive forward and full fruits –
especially the right bank Merlot based wines.
One of my standout favorites of the tasting was the Chateau
Canon which was especially approachable with bright vibrant fruits and a delicious sweetness.
From a branding perspective, in addition to Lynch Bages above, a couple other new special bottling or
new labels emerged.
Château Léoville Poyferré presented a striking gold painted
bottle with embossed molded emblem at the top commemorating their anniversary
vintage. 2020 marks the symbolic centennial vintage for the Cuvelier Family, the centennial anniversary of their ownership of this Second Grand Cru Classé of Saint-Julien.
And, for Sara Lecompte Cuvelier, fourth generation to be at the helm of the domain, this historic vintage is encapsulated in a special bottle to commemorate this significant milestone.
The unique bottle inlaid
with gold, the details of which 'pay tribute to the enduring strength of
Léoville Poyferré and its multifaceted terroir'.
Another
new branding approach is
Château Siran who introduce in the post Covid
era an artist label series featuring artwork that will be updated with
each vintage release.
The 2020 vintage marks the return of the family tradition of Château
Siran’s illustrated labels with a collaboration with Federica Matta, a
Franco-Chilean artist 'sensitive to the natural elements and the culture
of wine'.
Producers Sevrine and Edouard Miailhe wanted to memorialize the pandemic that paralysed the world in 2020. They chose a theme
of an anti-Covid allegory recognizing the olfactory qualities together with the beneficial properties of red wines with the new label's bright colors, celebrating "the joy of living and the
happiness of sharing".
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Charlotte Burckhard showing
new Chateau Siran label branding
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'Pour Boys' Tom C, me, Ernie and Lyle with
UGCB Ambassadors Chloe Morvan and
Marie Damouseau |
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Anne-Francoise Quie Château Rauzan-Gassies
with enthusiastic patron
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Earlier UGCB and related events are featured in earlier unwindwine blogposts.
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