Have enjoyed the 2013 and 2015 in the last year and yet I am amazed at how incredibly good this is. It is wonderful, perfumed, light to medium bodied, intense crunchy red currants and red cherries. Long finish. Stupidly good.
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Had a 1985 last week at a restaurant. Good, but leaning awfully hard into the barnyard/mushroom. I have not had more than a couple to compare to…
Even better on day two. I’m so glad I bought multiple cases of this delicious QPR.
I couldn’t resist, I decided to pop a 2009 tonight. Cut from the same cloth.
No barnyard/mushroom in the ‘96.
Thomas 2022. Taking forever to open up but man the stuffing is there…
Still tight. 3+ hours in the decanter helped soften it and bring out red fruits and leather with gripping acidity.
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A @Robert.A.Jr special from well before this Chateau became popular. Plums, cherries, tar, tobacco, and some smoke.
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We got wagyu bento boxes and ginko onigiri from a top tier restaurant where we had dinner last night, knowing today’s lunch options might be limited. What a pleasure to find the mini bar red wine in our room, covered by a generous on premise credit, was more than acceptable! And Riedel stems to boot. The view also didn’t suck.
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Wild that was brought in by Touton back then. I associate Touton with cheap aka lesser Bordeaux.
Good for you!
An 05’ I opened for my-brother-the-steak-guy was corked all to hell recently. I hope the rest of the case is ok…the fam was only mildly interested in learning what “corked” smells/tastes like.
We consoled ourselves with a 10’…
I bought a couple of Difese 2016s out of curiosity a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised by how fresh and crisp it was - I keep meaning to buy some more!
Yea no doubt, lovely stuff! I have a fair bit of 2005 and 2010 but not high more mature. Went through my 99s and 00s.
The color of your 85 looks gorgeous. I’ve really grown to love 85 Bordeaux.
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That’s a pretty wide alcohol range on the importer’s label.
It was nice! Such a pleasant surprise.
Picked up this and a bunch of other back vintage bottles from a dealer in Turin 2 years ago during a trip to Italy. The acidity was gone and it was cloudy, but still had the essence of Chianti. I’m not saying it was spectacular but it was a really cool experience to drink something that was harvested 60 years ago.
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That’s actually quite common, as up to 14% there is an allowable variance of plus or minus 1.5%. So you take the what used to be common 12.5% and throw on the 1.5% in both directions.
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I can’t remember seeing an importer strip that just restated the alcohol %. Probably to save money as much as liability.
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All the fills are into the neck from an OWC bought at auction.
Not sure this was ever a great wine, but it has aged well.
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Branaire-Ducru - St Julien - 2005
For me this was the perfect illustration of everything bad and good about 2005s. On opening, after a long decant, it was very unimpressive: still tannic, with lean and uninspiring fruit. The next day it was exactly the same, the day after too. I considered chucking it, then relented and put it back in the cellar for another two days. Last night I tried it again, expecting it would be either the same as before or starting to dry out - and was amazed to discover that the wine was transformed - fruit had emerged at last: a subtle blend of blackcurrant and vanilla, quite creamy and rather attractive. Shame I only had one glass left. Was it worth the sixteen year wait? Not sure! Also, at 49€ EP, it wasn’t cheap.
I know my experiences with 05s do not match others’ here, including this wine: perhaps my cellar is just colder than most, I don’t know. This was stored since release at a constant 13°C.
Anyway, I will certainly not open my last Branaire for several more years.
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