This bottle has a lot of what I don’t like in wine: Pronounced alcohol and really ripe, extracted fruit. What it lacks is the pepper and provencale herb thing that I appreciate in CDP made in the style I like. For what it’s worth, it was a bit more tolerable on Day 2, but I still can’t see this evolving into something remotely special with more time. Bleh!
Bad news this.
I really enjoyed the 2000 version of this wine a few years back and I think the 2001 has lots of promise.
But I wonder if this estate didn’t succumb to the dark side since then. And 2005 is no opulent CDP vintage, in general.
Have both the 2003 and 2004 and have not experienced what you did.
Have several vintages of this waiting
Interesting. I have enjoyed many 2004 CDP but not liked any that I have tried from 2003. They are very different vintages. I have not had Grand Veneur from either 2003 or 2004, so I don’t have a reference point for comparison to my 2005.
I liked 03 and 04 Grand Veneur back near the time of release. On the modern side, but not freakish at all. They drank well young, but I’m not sure how the few I still have will age.
I’ve never opened an 05. I think I have a couple. It seems early to drink 05s.
I agree with this. If it had not been for the pronounced alcohol, I might be more inclined to think I just opened the bottle too early. I have drunk other '05s in the last year that were young and tight but not overtly alcoholic. My hope is that I got an off bottle or caught this at an awkward time, as I have a few more in the cellar.
For what it is worth, a few years ago I had the regular 2005 Grand Veneur CDP out of magnum, and it was much better.
In recent years, particularly 2009, they’ve certainly been pushing the limits of ripeness at 15.5%. Not sure what the ABV of 2005 is though.
Just moseyed downstairs to the cabinet and looked. 2005 = 15.5%, 2004 = 14.5%.
That according to the (highly approximate in France, of course) labels only.
I would guess that most 2005s are not open for drinking now. I have experienced Chateauneufs that have occured high in alcohol and lacking in fruit and/or complexity, in the closed mid-periode between young and peak. So personally I think it will benefit greatly from further cellaring.
I had a pretty disappointing bottle of the 2001 Grand Veneur ‘les Origines’ [CNDP] last night. We took this out for dinner, and I paired it with a slab of iron pan seared king salmon, which is my go to dish at this place, along with a BYO CNDP. But this one came across a bit closed, with a pruney note on the palate. It wasn’t bad per se, but just underwhelming given the years of cellaring, and how well a 2000 of the same had showed a year or so ago. Generally I like this producer, especially their Clos de Sixte, Champauvins and other bottlings, so its not a modern style thing. My example hadn’t aged all that well, so maybe its just bottle variation. I’d slot it into the B- grade. Even on day 2, this 15% abv did not improve.
I drank an '05 in 2017 and liked it. Probably just different taste preferences.
EU rules allow only 0.5% margin of error – less than US rules. I don’t know if that’s enforced or not.