Bordeaux 2009 - With the highest IPT tannin index recorded in 2009, what does that mean for the wines?

James Lawther MW

The quantity of tannins in 2009 (IPT stands for Indice des Polyphénols Totaux or Total Phenolics) is a clear indication that the wines have structure and the potential to age.

Some like Cos d'Estournel with a massive IPT of 99 could be in the mould of, say, a Mouton-Rothschild 1986 and take years to come round (it's only just beginning to open a little now).

Producers on the Right Bank are less profligate with IPT readings than their Left Bank counterparts but you can be assured that the wines have a high tannin count as well.

In terms of taste and texture, commentators at the en primeur tastings generally found the wines more voluptuous and less vigorously tannic than in 2005 but this is due to the ripeness of the tannins, the generosity of fruit and degree of alcohol.

This is a rich, ripe vintage with long ageing potential which, at present, also offers the sort of exuberant opulence and accessibility seen in 1982.

Steven Spurrier

Tannins are what preserves a red wine.

Alcohol and acidity do not change with age, but fruit does change a great deal, 揷oming out?as the wine matures, spending many years on a plateau and then fading and finally drying out.

Tannins mature very slowly and never fade away, so the optimum time to drink a red wine, particularly a red Bordeaux from a tannic vintage, is when the fruit begins to dominate the tannins, say in three years for a minor Cru Bourgeois from the Medoc, twelve for Ch. Latour, until the tannins begin to once more dominate the fruit as the fruit fades, say in eight years for the Cru Bourgeois and fifty for Ch. Latour.

Tannins provide backbone and grip and when they are ripe, as they are in 2009, they do not unbalance the wine.

In the past, many Bordeaux chateaux picked too early and the tannins were simply not ripe.

This meant that these wines had to be kept a long time for the tannins to soften, often too long for the fruit to last.

Such vintages were 1984 and 1994, where the fruit was not ripe enough for the tannins. This was not the case in 2009.