1988 Bordeaux

Credit where it’s due: Robert Parker nailed it when he said, “The year 1988 is a good but rarely thrilling vintage of red wines...the problem is there is a lack of superstar performances on the part of the top châteaux.”

 

When you consider every great Bordeaux vintage, the first thing you think of is one or two of world-shaking wine experiences from that year. But 1988 doesn’t have any of those. Why? Mainly because it was one of those shell-shocked soldiers’ vintages. After the wash-out disaster of a harvest in 1987, most growers left too much fruit hanging on the vines and/or experienced PTSD at the first drops of rain in the run-up to harvest and pulled the trigger. But the fruit wasn’t completely ripe.

 

Qualitatively, 1988 could have been right up there with 1989 and 1990, even if a very different style. July, August, and September were warm (not hot) and notably dry, creating some vine stress but nothing too alarming. A large crop had been set, too large for the cooler season in some cases, so vigilance was necessary. Ripeness was slow and steady, necessitating a relatively late harvest to achieve optimal ripeness, requiring nerves of steel. Light late-September and mid-October rains prompted many to pull the harvest trigger too soon. Otherwise, considering the hefty crops, cooler season, and that green harvesting then wasn’t then what it is now, the vines just didn’t have the resources to completely ripen the berries. Sugar levels were so low that chaptalization was common this vintage.

 

The best reds of 1988 side-step the greenness and herbal/leafy characters that ensued from picking under-ripe. They are lighter-bodied and elegant, with just a slight chewiness to the tannins.

 

The top Médoc wines of the vintage are still pleasant today, but they lack real concentration and backbone. Among the best reds I’ve tasted recently from 1988 are Lafite and Léoville Las Cases, both adeptly showcasing this vintage’s graceful, perfumed elegance at its best. However, equally impressive is one of the big surprises of this vintage: the 1988 Léoville Barton, which I tasted again at the château a few weeks before writing this report. Light-bodied and at only 12% alcohol, it is still fantastically intense and fragrant for its delicate weight.

 

1988 was initially considered more of a right bank and Graves vintage. These wines were indeed a bit juicier, softer, and more delicious in their youths. However, judging from the ’88s I’ve had recently from Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, and Pessac-Léognan, a lot are past their best or should be drunk soon.

 

The most consistently great wines of 1988 that have stood the test of time come from Sauternes and Barsac. Here, it was an outstanding vintage resulting from widespread, uniform Botrytis infection starting well into October. Therefore, it was a relatively late harvest, which extended right to the end of November (and beyond, in a few cases). Most of the top names went on to make extraordinary wines. Tasted earlier this year, Château d’Yquem remains energetic, possessing a vibrant citrusy spriteliness—35 years old and still a teenager in vinous terms. Even the humbler names produced very good, age-worthy wines that are drinking well now. I recently had a delicious 1988 Château Bastor-Lamontagne, which you can still pick up for a song. Mind you, I’ve had several opportunities to taste 1988s alongside 1989s from top Sauternes and Barsac châteaux recently, and I always wind-up preferring the 1989.