Twenty years on, 2006 stands as a study in selection. A dry July, a cool August and September rain split the vintage along lines of appellation, grape and harvest date. The wines that succeeded, above all in Pomerol, show what careful sorting and earlier picking could achieve in a difficult year. Decanter's vintage guide rates the vintage four out of five on both banks.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Region | Bordeaux, France: Left Bank and Right Bank |
| Growing season | July drought, cool August weather, September rain. Later-ripening Cabernet plots on the Left Bank faced rot pressure; Pomerol's earlier harvest timing reduced exposure to the later rain. |
| Harvest | Merlot-led picking from mid-September. Chateau Tronquoy-Lalande, for example, harvested 18 to 29 September: Merlot first, then Petit Verdot, then Cabernet Sauvignon, in a blend of 59 percent Merlot, 29 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 12 percent Petit Verdot. |
| Style | Firm, classically proportioned reds. Decanter identifies Pomerol as the standout appellation of the vintage. |
| Producer variation | Wide. Robert Parker identified three potential 100-point wines: Mouton Rothschild, La Mission Haut-Brion and Bellevue Mondotte. |
| Current maturity | At or near peak for most wines. Farr Vintners describes 2006 red Bordeaux as at its peak and advises holders to drink now or sell; this is a merchant judgment, not a universal verdict, and individual bottles vary widely. |
| Cellaring context | Well-stored bottles from the best producers continue to hold, but the vintage offers no argument for further long cellaring of lesser wines. As with any mature Bordeaux, provenance, fill level, capsule and cork condition matter more with every passing year. |
Why 2006 still matters
The 2006 vintage is useful precisely because it was not uniformly great. It rewards the collector's skills that matter most with mature wine: attention to appellation, to producer, to picking decisions, and above all to provenance. A 2006 Pomerol from a careful estate, bought on release and stored well, is a different proposition from a lesser wine that sat warm for a decade.
A note on sources
Seasonal and harvest detail here is drawn from Decanter's vintage guide and published estate technical sheets; maturity judgments are attributed to the merchants and critics who made them. We assign no scores of our own.