Notes & queries

Each month our experts answer readers’ wine queries and share their knowledge

Bordeaux 2005

When 2005 was touted as the best Bordeaux vintage since 1963, I ferreted away as many bottles as I could afford from trips to France. Not first to third growths, but the lower levels of the ladder: cru bourgeois châteaux such as Caronne Ste-Gemme, Meyney and Le Boscq. I have dipped an occasional toe in the water with the odd bottle, but mainly resisted the temptation to dive in. Should I now take the plunge? Are these modest Bordeaux wines still in need of time, peaking or past their best? Steve Garrett, by email

Jane Anson replies: You definitely picked a brilliant vintage for long-ageing wines, and even at cru bourgeois level these should still be tasting excellent and not past their prime. This wouldn’t be true, by the way, in the smaller appellations like the Côtes, where wines are almost always better to be drunk in the first 10 years after bottling, even in great vintages such as 2005. I would, however, definitely start opening and enjoying them now, as they should be at their peak. Good Bordeaux can always surprise you with how long it can age, especially Cabernet-dominant wines from the Left Bank as you have here, but you’ll get great pleasure from these wines now.

Eiswein concerns

I read that German producers were unable to make any eiswin this year due to climate change causing warmer than usual weather. What will they do with all the grapes destined for those wines? Would it be too late to use them for anything else?

Chris Harrow, by email

Anne Krebiehl MW replies: The initial press release that made these headlines drew its data mainly from the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, which proportionally includes most German vineyards across the regions of Pfalz, Mosel, Ahr, Rheinhessen and Nahe. In other regions however, such as Württemberg and Baden, winemakers were able to harvest eiswein.

In the meantime, the German Wine Institute has amended its press release to reflect that, still noting that German eiswein from the 2019 vintage is an ‘absolute rarity’.

Eiswein is made from grapes that are left on the vine in known frost pockets, on the off-chance that there will be a cold night with the required frost of -7°C. In most years this happened more or less reliably, but that is no longer the case. The frosts also tend to come later now, after Christmas rather than before, which also diminishes the likelihood of the grapes still being healthy before being frozen.

Also, in low-yielding vintages winemakers are less likely to leave grapes on the vine. Any grapes that are left and don’t freeze end up rotting, so they go to waste.

The last really successful eiswein vintages were 2012 and 2015. But even if an eiswein harvest is successful, yields are minuscule and precious. Climate change does mean that in the future German eiswein will be even more of a rarity than it already is.

Allergens in wine

I understand that sodium benzoate can be added to wines as a preservative. I have been diagnosed with a sodium benzoate allergy and am now aware of foods that contain it, so wondered how often it is used in wine and if it is allowed in all regions?

Jane Morrill, by email

Justin Knock MW replies: Sodium benzoate is used in the food industry to suppress the growth of yeast, and is permitted for use in wine in some countries for the same purpose so as to avoid refermentation in bottle. However, it is not permitted to be used in wine shipped within the EU – potassium sorbate is permitted and used instead.

So, at this point in time, readers in the UK and EU who are concerned about sodium benzoate have no cause for concern when it comes to wine. Of course the context of this may change over the next 12 months, so it’s a topic worth coming back to next year.