Branaire seems to never disappoint but it never has the density of a wine like Leoville Barton which really has become my favorite St Julien (above even LLC and Ducru.)
I think they are two different wines, Brainaire always seems more perfumed and elegant to me, whereas LB is more stoic, like old aristocracy. Love them both! I probably own more LB than any other wine from this appellation but will admit to backfilling quite a bit on LLC. I’m still bitter about some tainted wines by Ducru in the mid-80s! #NeverForget. 
I last tasted the Branaire a couple of years ago, and felt that it was the finest wine I have tasted from the estate. While normally, I think of it as a third tier wine, this was a second borderline first tier.
I think they are very different - my point is I find Branaire lighter and more of a wine to drink sooner whereas LB is more of vin de garde.
I have a couple more bottles of the 1982 but I do think they need to be consumed.
2005 Lascombes. This has settled nicely - a perfumed nose and still a bit of forward fruit. Some earthy notes - went well with the mushroom ravioli.
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Over a couple of nights, a 2005 La Fleur de Jaugue [St Emilion] purchased EP from Zachys, showed incredibly well. It’s hard to find this out west, and comments across vintages are scant, but I’ve been pleased with vintages from 1995-2005, and thought this medium weight, merlot dominant blend was the best year I have tasted. Texturally the tannin has melted, acid is low, fruit is sweet and there is lots of sediment in bottle as well as the last glasses. On the nose - some mulberry then cocoa on the tongue, This is lovely at age 20, although I did prefer it on the first of two nights. If I remember correctly, one reason why information/commentary is scant (beyond the low production) is that this is some kind of tete de cuvee of Cruzeau, which is not obvious to enthusiasts, even if motivated. For my tastes, it’s an A- on my ledger. Style wise this is slightly more lush, modern but it does NOT have any gooey, torrefacted, late picked character.
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We’ve tasted 50 2005s over two days and the results are very mixed.
Here’s the summary: All wines tasted blind, not decanted. Left bank is quite good, right bank is a disaster waiting to happen. A few observations: 1) Left bank 2005s are good to very good, with ripe yet fresh fruit, real substance, and the classic structure that defines the vintage. 2) Most are just entering their first drinking window but remain youthful, with no tertiary development yet. 3) Top wines were Lafite (98), Mouton (97), Margaux (96), and Branon (95). Sadly, Latour and Mission were faulty. 4) Of 22 right banks, only 5 scored 90 or above. Eglise Clinet led with 94pts. The Parker-era style (too ripe, too extracted, heavily oaked) combined with Merlot’s fragility, does not age well. As the opulent fruit fades, what remains are harsh wood tannins and wines prone to premature oxidation. Many tasters today still enjoy these wines because decanting brings out the opulent fruit that masks structural flaws. But our approach offered a glimpse into their future: once that fruit fades with age, as it inevitably will, there will be nothing left to hide the dry tannins and unbalanced frames. Fortunately, that style has falling out of favor in the past decade.
In vintage horizontals over the past few years we found the same problems with many right bank wines. In 2009, 6 out of 23 Right Bank wines (26%) showed signs of oxidation or were drying out. In 2010, 7 out of 24 (29%). In the 2004 tasting 31%, or 5 out of 16 wines tasted, had these problems. Right bank Bordeaux between 2003 and 2010 are a minefield.
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Thanks Andy. Some great insights.
As a reference point, we tasted the Branaire this weekend, and I marked it slightly higher than you did, but then it had the benefit of around 20 minutes in the glass, and that gave it a chance to it open up.
The note about modern Petrus is very disturbing, Although I have had fewer wines than you have, I have not found them flawed, but they have not been particularly exciting. It is one of the reasons that I am so high on VCC, is when I have a chance to compare, I have invariably preferred the VCC.
I think it might be an interesting topic for a thread.
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Great notes, thanks Andy. Also disturbing. It’s been a few years since I’ve last had one, but my experience with Right banks has been a bit less uniformly negative. A few definitely showing the oxidation and astringent tannins that you note, but also a number of very good wines, including Latour a Pomerol, Rol Valentin and La Fleur Morange (the wine that Jancis reportedly tasted blind and said “I think this may be Pavie but it is still a very good wine!”). More recently had a 05 BAMA which was terrific.
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Very thorough tasting, thanks for the write up. A couple of questions:
- What was your approach for decanting/serving that exposed the problems with the right bank wines?
- How many tasters were there?
- Did you vote and stack rank the wines in flights, I assume the ratings are your ratings and not a group rating
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All wines opened two, three hours before the tasting, not decanted. I‘ve had some the wines that didn‘t show well in more social setting with proper decanting and they were fine. Not decanting exposes the underlying tannin structure.
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We‘re always more or less the same 15 people. Many experienced tasters (this was the 100th tasting of this group), one of the taster is french wine critic Jean Marc Quarin. The wines were all bought en Primeur and stored unmoved since (they alway come from the same one cellar).
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These are my scores, then we discuss the wines after each flight of four, my ratings are made before that and before the wines are revealed. Everybody felt the same (more or less) about the right banks. JM Quarin even said „they know they produced faulty wines in that era, everybody knows“. On that topic: Denis Dubourdieu, oenology professor in Bordeaux, told Decanter‘s Jane Anson about premox in Bordeaux reds (and reds) in general in 2013 already (see link). William Kelley wrote on the topic too.
Yeah, the Branaire would have needed a bit of air. In these larger tasting my score are most often lower than if you would follow a wine over an evening.
Re Petrus: it‘s 7 out of 25. With VCC none out of the 40 I‘ve had in the past few years and have notes of had these problems.
He FWIW, I find numerous 05s to be on the firm side, with some wines being quite austere.
Clearly there are some St, Emilion wines that aged poorly. There are also fabulous Saint Emilion producers that made very good wine. Pomerol is mixed, with some successful wines, and others just too masculine. Pessac Leognan has some very good wines at the top.
The Left Bank is mixed with some wines offering fabulous character, while other wines, far too many are quite austere.
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I must be a very poor wine-taster because a good bunch of 2005’s are amongst the best wines I have drank in my entire life. Ausone, Latour, Pape Clement, Fourtet… Maybe fruit is fooling me but if that is the case I love being fooled by fruit…
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Pretty wild re the right bank wines. Thanks for those impressions.
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Really nice, comprehensive review Andy.
I tried a handful of these about 18 months ago, but under less controlled conditions. Very similar results on many of the St. Emilions, though your note on the Pavie reads like my take on the Bellevue Mondotte and vice versa, in particular with respect to the prominence of VA.
The presence of VA on the Pontet Canet surprised me, as I haven’t noticed that either of the 2 times I’ve had it.
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I had Ausone before and it performed well, but sadly Ausone is not immune to the right bank problems (bottles of the 2003 twice, 2010 and 2014 had similar problems in recent years).
Pape Clement was great, Latour was a faulty bottle no structural problem but I had it before and it was great.
I have found similar issues with 2005 Right Bank over the last 12 months -
Pavie Macquin - a very ripe style that declined very quickly even out of magnum on multiple occasions
Angelus - seems ‘over the hill’ and uninspired when I tasted it at a vertical tasting last year
VCC - the best of the right bank 05s but felt flat versus other ripe vintages
PLL - good but not profound; stable after two hours in the decanter (more pleasurable vs RBs)