2005 Chateau La Confession, St. Emilion
I’m the wrong guy for this wine. It’s ripe (not hot) and comes off sweet. I noticed some pencil/graphite through the dominant dark and blueberry fruit smoothie…but that’s about it. Fairly chewy (extraction). The attack starts with a trace of shyness and then the moderately intense flavors follow through. It’s fat and primary. It’s a cocktail wine. Whatever tannins it had have eased. It bores me. Like staring at a pretty plus sized dress worn by a couple of beach balls. The wood treatment works fine…but I’m a structure guy. I’ll be donating a couple bottles to a local auction.
Just popped the 2005 Faugeres St. Emilion tonight. High toned, acetates not quite nail polish. Quite ripe, sweet jammy and almost pruney. 14.5% alcohol. Maybe this style sells, but I’m not sharing the love.
Sorry to read that, Richard, but not very surprised. I bought quite a lot of St.E in 05, most of which I sold without regret and those I didn’t taste just like you describe.
Sadly, it’s not just St.Emilions. I tried a bottle of D’Escurac 2005 this week (just a humble Cru Bourgeois), which was full of wood and vanilla. Weirdly enough I didn’t even notice the oak when I tried one in 2013: the wine can’t have changed so it must be my taste - perhaps I got so used to the taste of wood that I stopped noticing.
I think my taste has certainly evolved. The D’Escurac wasn’t a bad bottle, far from it - but I no longer like that sort of thing and it just tasted old-fashioned, like an 80s mullet!
One positive note, though - earlier this year we opened bottles of Faugères 1998 and 2000: they were both excellent, especially the latter. They weren’t exactly classical, but the fruit was not at all overdone and there was no trace of oak. So maybe given time some of these wines digest all that wood and over-extraction?
P.S. I should just point out that - No - I have never eaten nor drunk a mullet…for those who don’t know or who have forgotten on purpose because they used to have one, a “mullet” is the term used to describe a hairstyle in the 1980s - short at the front, long at the back, as worn by pop stars and footballers.
My son goes to University of Alabama. While he does not sport one, I can state that the mullet is either not out of style, or has made a dramatic comeback. Now keep in mind, 'Bama is also stuck in the past.
Sadly, I have come to realize that this is by and large what Bordeaux has become. I struggle with anything made after 2002. There are still a few here and there making that old time Bordeaux, but they often aren’t spoken about any where.
We should start a thread about wines made from 2003 and on that are made for the old world palate.
I had a bottle of this as soon as it was released and I scored it 94 points. I thought it was an excellent wine then, and I bought a half a case. Coincidentally, I just opened one last week. My notes are probably fairly similar to yours. But, I think the issue is just that it is still not really in the right phase of maturity yet. As I have noticed with a number of 05s- they just need more time. The ones I have tasted have all been pretty weird lately. Based on what I tried at release (and based on the excellent 2001 which I finished up my bottles of a year or two ago) I think this Confession will be excellent. It just needs time, I am thinking.
I haven’t tried recent vintages of Lanessan, but I did read elsewhere about the 2015, so if it’s true, it’s sad. Figeac is perhaps sadder still.
But hope springs eternal. All the consultants cater for “the market”, as some are so keen to remind us. But tastes change and so has “the market”: my only extensive experience with 2010, for example, is with Crus Bourgeois, and there has certainly been a change since 2005, with wines that are much more streamlined and although often high octave, not focused on the mocha and chocolate flavours of many 2005s. Hopefully this will continue. Also, since RMP’s retirement, there isn’t perhaps the same need for conformity. I was amused to see that Lisa P-B actually put the wines into three categories of style in her 2015 report, so the truly spoofy ones were all lumped together. Rather helpful.
“One positive note, though - earlier this year we opened bottles of Faugères 1998 and 2000: they were both excellent, especially the latter. They weren’t exactly classical, but the fruit was not at all overdone and there was no trace of oak. So maybe given time some of these wines digest all that wood and over-extraction?” JM
“I had a bottle of this as soon as it was released and I scored it 94 points. I thought it was an excellent wine then, and I bought a half a case. Coincidentally, I just opened one last week. My notes are probably fairly similar to yours. But, I think the issue is just that it is still not really in the right phase of maturity yet. As I have noticed with a number of 05s- they just need more time. The ones I have tasted have all been pretty weird lately. Based on what I tried at release (and based on the excellent 2001 which I finished up my bottles of a year or two ago) I think this Confession will be excellent. It just needs time, I am thinking.” BH
I’ve been buying, cellaring Bordeaux beginning in the early 60s, and have consistently experienced the demise (digestion) of wood and “young” fruitiness, not only in Bordeaux, but also many other profiles of red wine over varying, long term (eight years+) time intervals. This mutation/conversion and, the resulting flavors can be magnificent.
Totally agree with JM & BH based on my personal experience.
A matter of personal taste, of course, but for me it’s the rare exception that one of these high-alcohol, high-oak wines will morph into a Bordeaux that classicists will appreciate. While the majority of these modern wines are only hitting 12-20 years of age, that is more than optimal maturity to assess what you have. Many showed terribly to me 10 years out, enough to know what I needed to know. Further maturity has not shown me otherwise. And even if I am wrong, as other other Bordeaux lovers of similar view, why would we continue to plunk down thousands on an experiment that may not ever pan out, when there are loads of classic Bordeaux available all all price-points. And I’m talking Chateaux with 100+ year track-records. Not me, not wasting my time or money. Have blown enough on these modern wines. I’ve cleared most of them from my storage.
I hope you are right, I really do. I just don’t see it from this generation of modern stuff. I think even the modernist champions like Leve suggest these wines are not made for the long-haul, but instead, earlier-term enjoyment.
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