On the nose, classic left bank- pencil lead, cedar, leather, dark red fruits, and licorice. The palate is so young and TANNIC. I’m decanting now but I wouldn’t recommend a pop and pour. In the mouth I’m getting cedar, tart red fruits, strong acidity and earth. The finish is surprisingly long for it’s pedigree but it gets a little bitter. *** now with upside.
Soapbox- 05 was the first vintage that I purchased Bordeaux futures. I’m still amazed at how young these cheap 05s are drinking. Many of them really are built for midterm cellaring. I can still remember this being $12.99 at Costco in Austin a few years back and seeing a guy load six cases into his cart. Wish I would have bought at least two or three.
I tried one of these about a year ago. I hope it was flawed, because it was very thin and bitter. I only bought 3 bottles, maybe I’ll open another one and it’ll surprise me.
I had the same experience with the '05 Haut-Batailley. In my notes, I wrote “astringent and thin”, although it was somewhat drinkable. I’ve had 12 different '05 Bordeaux at this point, and those were the only two that I thought were really off.
I also had 05 Haut-Batailley recently and I thought it was great. It was so tight though…it’ll take years to even be drinkable I think. Either I had really good bottles or you had bad ones I guess.