Paul @bbott wrote:
Glad to read your comments on the Langoa, I found a few bottles for £60 each the other day and snapped them up. Any advice on how long I should resist before grabbing my corkscrew?
Hi, Paul. I would guess they are now approachable if you give them a couple of hours in a decanter. It was the most approachable of the 2005’s that we tried that day. Enjoy!
Ed
Remind me to save my ‘82 Meyney to have with you
Upon reflection Antoine a more apt description of the 2010 vintage. However while some 16s came across as awkward in other instances the 16 in the sample did a terminator job on the other wines - two examples Talbot and Giscours where the 16 demolished the field.
Since this thread began, I have tasted several 2005s, and I have restarted it after Alfert’s thread on the 2005 Moulin Saint Georges he tasted. The wines I tasted were Pichon Baron, Haut Brion, LMHB, Magdelaine, VCC, and Langoa and Leoville Barton.
TBH, it is not a totally representative sample, as they were all wines that I liked at the time. But the overriding descriptors included words like backward and promising, and my current scores reflect that. With the exception of Langoa Barton, none of the wines are ready, and even the Langoa could still use a few years. But overall, I remain incredibly impressed with the vintage, and I don’t think it is easily compared with subsequent recent ones.
The tannins are indeed powerful, but fine in a way that 1986 never were, and in fact at around the same stage have a brutal quality that has never really gone away.
With 2005, there is a tightrope balance, and I suspect it will take at least another decade for the best to soften. The length is massive; the wines have yet to unfurl, but they will; Magdelaine and VCC were already showing signs. But on the downside, it is an austere rather than a charming vintage, and for me, will be the best wines are going to evolve to among the best ever produced in Bordeaux.
Great post!!
Julian popped the 2005 MSG, I popped the 2019.
I will say I’ve recently had the 2005 Magdelaine, Montrose, Leoville Barton and d’Armailhac. These are excellent wines in an excellent vintage. And they need way more time. It’s a very powerful, backward vintage. I like the comparison to 1986. Which of course means we need another 10+ on the big boys. I wonder whether 2016 is a better vintage. At my age and my palate I still lean toward 2014, 2011 and 2012 Pomerol, 2008 left banks, but damn good stuff all around.
If the lower/mid tier wines of recent vintages (2015 onwards) are anything like this 2005 La Fleur de Jaugue [St Emilion] at maturity, fans of the region have much to look forward to! I bought good amounts of this property between 1998-2005 but have never really understood it’s background. I think it’s a parcel of Cruzeau, with 2000 cases production, but availability has been thin, especially in the last decade or so. I doubt it’s been exported to the US in recent times, but back in this era it was a noted as a ‘sleeper’ by Parker, so it had some modest distribution. 2005 is similar to other mature vintages in that it offers good cherry/strawberry red fruit, soft/resolved tannin, low acidity and medium/typical levels of sediment. It doesn’t have a sophisticated bouquet, which holds it’s grade back, but it’s an fine midweek mature St Emilion to enjoy. Over 3 days it did not fade so I don’t think there is any rush to consume this 13.5% abv merlot / cab franc blend. Closed with a conventional cork, which was in great shape. Purchased EP, stored properly, and slotting in at a B+ on my scorecard.
I love how the 2005 right bank wines are tasting today; I don’t find them overly jacked out.
Enjoying a half bottle of the 2005 d’Armailhac, purchased as futures, and it still fairly strict and reserved. Like many 05s from the Left Bank, there’s a remarkable level of minerality to this wine, it’s not really soil or earthiness, more like pulverized rock and iodine. This gives the vintage a certain medicinal quality that I can’t recall in prior Bordeaux vintages, but that I often get with young Italian wines.
With a little air, notes of red raspberries appear to go along with a notably juicy, cool and dark, slightly tar-like profile. The long finish has actually soften a lot since the last time I had this some years ago, but this still leaves a powdery, drying cling. Nothing heavy or boozy, this is actually surprisingly refined in texture and weight for such a brooding set of flavors.
At age 20, this is still a toddler, but showing signs of progress that are oh so promising for where the good 05s will eventually end up.
