I’ve been checking in on some 05s over the last week. The good news is that the ones I tried are starting to drink a lot better, but they still need a little more time. Also, any worries I had about the tannins outlasting the fruit have been dispelled. In fact, drinking them I was reminded of what @Keith_Levenberg posted recently about ageing wine:
This is spot on, and especially applies to the 2005 vintage (IMO), in Bordeaux but also the Loire (and maybe other regions too).
Château Batailley - Pauillac 2005
On the nose, black olives, tobacco, but above all blackberry and dark cherry. The attack is quite rich and powerful, with quite yeasty blackberry and black cherry, before a rising middle section featuring salty blueberry, then at last the blackcurrant I had been expecting comes to the fore on the finish. Overall quite classy and refined, with fully integrated tannins (at last) but in need of a few more years I think to taste more like a Pauillac. All that rich blackberry needs to die down to allow the blackcurrant to shine, so for now it’s a very good Batailley, but I wouldn’t say it’s a great one yet. 92 pts
Château du Tertre - Margaux 2005
Leather and spices at first, then the 05 trademark blackberry, together with some truffles and griottes. Like the Batailley, the attack is rich and powerful, full of spicy blackberry, then a wave of intense black cherry, again slightly salty, before a decent finish featuring plums and blackcurrants. Still in its infancy, I think time will give it a bit more typicity. It was surprisingly hard to tell that it was a Margaux, but it did have a certain elegance to the finish, so I’m optimistic. 91 pts
Domaine de la Cotelleraie - L’Envolée - Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil 2005
Loganberries and blackberries on the nose, with cranberry and redcurrant, plus some tobacco leaf. On the palate, creamy blackberries at first, but swiftly followed by plums and wild strawberries, especially the former, before a very persistent finish that mainly features blueberries, plus blackcurrants after a couple of hours. Plump and fleshy, quite like a Pomerol, not at all overawed by the Bordeaux 05s - in fact I preferred it to the Batailley and the Du Tertre. 93 pts
Domaine de Chevalier - Pessac-Léognan - 2005
I was very curious to try this as Jane Anson chose it as her wine of the year in 2024, and because I had not liked it at all in 2022.
On the nose, black cherry dominates, with cedar, dark chocolate and black olive tapenade, all well and good - then a distinct whiff of kirsch. Not so good. It starts well in the mouth, with intense dark cherry tempered by sweet blackcurrant, then a wave of blackberry takes over, and on the first evening, a rather unpleasantly hot finish full of kirsch. On the second evening, things were very much better. The kirsch had vanished completely, leaving a much crisper, more elegant nose and finish, and just a better wine all round: very smooth and refined, definitely haute couture, but with an earthiness to remind you it’s a Pessac-Léognan. Jane Anson gave it 97 pts, which I think is a bit OTT, but on the basis of the second evening, definitely a 95 pt wine.
Obviously, the surprise came from L’Envolée. I’m a great admirer of the estate and was curious to see how it would fare with the Bordeaux. It didn’t quite have the class of the DDC on the second evening but it coped well and if value for money was the only criteria, it was the clear winner.
All the wines were decanted for about five hours but all were better on the second evening.
Overall, an interesting experience, but quite hard work. These are rich and powerful wines, not for the fainthearted. I have no doubt that the pros will be doing 20 year retrospectives later on in 2025 - rather them than me! Obviously this is just a snaphot and my overall impression is clearly flawed, but still: I admired rather than loved them. My notes are crappy and repetitive as usual, but for once the repetition is not just because of my own limitations: they did taste very similar, dominated perhaps by the vintage conditions or the winemaking style at the expense of the terroir. I’m hopeful that time will change my feelings, but for now, I don’t see 2005 as a “classic” vintage in the same way as 2000 for example, which I much prefer for now. This will probably sound like sacrilege for some, but these wines tasted a bit Rhone-ish, as if someone had added a dollop of Châteauneuf du Pape to the blend. The influence of a certain critic who also happened to like strong Rhone reds, for example? Perhaps they just need time to calm down a bit more.