St Emilion/Pomerol - 2002

Good, vintage but with variability; fragrant wines.

Modest. Drink soon.

This year which saw a difficult flowering leading to coulure and millerandage (poor fruit set resulting in small and varied size grapes respectively), a cool, wet summer, and the constant threat of rot. But four weeks of warm, sunny weather in September turned what could have been a disastrous vintage into a possibly modest to decent year. "I'm happy and surprised as the sugar and acidity is correct, colour and aromas good and if the quantity of tannin is down at least it is ripe," says Alain Moueix, manager of Saint-Emilion grand cru classé Château Fonroque and Château Mazeyres in Pomerol.

Apart from the rain storm on 20th September and isolated showers on 9th-10th October the weather stayed fine during the harvest. Days were warm (18-23°C) and sunny and a north-easterly breeze kept the rot at bay and helped concentrate the grapes.

'The level of extraction will have to be carefully handled as the tannins are not always fully ripe, otherwise the wines appear round, fruity and supple with perhaps a little lack of volume on the palate,' says consultant oenologist Gilles Pauquet. As always the level of work in the vineyards was a crucial factor.