2005 Red Bordeaux with Richard Brazier

Richard Brazier of Ancient & Modern wines ( http://www.ancientandmodernwines.co.uk/) presented a horizontal of 2005s as an update to how this great and promising vintage feels at the moment.

Wines were decanted for 1-1.5hrs

To be honest as a generalisation the wines felt very young and we would not even dream of opening any of them at any time soon.
The common elements were the dark red colour with no discoloration and the fact that albeit young and restrained none of the wines felt harsh or angular.

Time and patience will be rewarded.

A note for our ratings which might appear low. We always rate wrt how the wine feels on the day and not on potential. As a generalisation we believe the below wine will add 3-5 points once they hit their peak.

• 2005 Château La Gaffelière 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  Dark, deep red in colour. No discoloration. Quite a ripe fruit nose, maybe a touch of raisins too, violets at times. No oak dynamic. Quite young on the palate and albeit not austere or harsh still feels buttoned down. Intense and full bodied,a touch sweet, quite a bit of tannin but also a lot of fruit. Needs a good 5yrs maybe more to show its true quality. Felt like a 90-91 for now but definitely will warrant higher scores going forward. A touch worried over the raisin notes too.

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• 2005 Château La Gomerie 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion

  First time we come across this estate. Dark red in colour. Not the mose expressive nose, light fruit, light leather and spice too. Young on the palate and primary, rich fruit, light caramel notes. No oak feel at all here. Tasted ok on the day but really not more than a 90 and will need a minimum 5yrs to develop its charm

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• 2005 Domaine de Chevalier 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Dark in colour, no discoloration. Subtle, shy nose. Good rich fruit on the palate, young of course and primary in many respects. Austere and tannic too at this stage but with good length. Soft on the fruit. Felt like it’s a good wine but needs time to develop 5yrs+. A 90-91 on the day but with a lot of promise for the future

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• 2005 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  Dark red in colour. Dense. Light cocoa and caramel on the nose, feels modern in a way (not a bad one). Good fruit, dark fruits, good extract. Young but not harsh or austere and full of promise. Give this one a lot of time. 91-92 at the moment. Patience will be rewarded as with so many of the vintage.

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• 2005 Château Palmer 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  The dark colour of a youthful Bordeaux. This is a clear example of the great side of this vintage at this stage. Young, with a good amount of tannin, but not harsh or angular and felt supremely balanced. Very backward though and this is buttoned up till the eyebrows. But one cannot fail to notice the quality. Great wine in the making but will need a good 10years to develop. On the day it felt like a 92 but with time this will be a very high 90s. Lots of life ahead.

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• 2005 Château Montrose 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  Dark red in colour. Glossy. Young wine, but its opening up. Mineral, rich fruit and show very nicely even at this very very young stage. Light spice.
  Classy and elegant wine very similar to Cos albeit a touch more linear at this stage than the more giving Cos. No oak feel. Give this beauty time, 5yrs minimum or 10 better. 93 for now but watch the numbers grow with time.

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• 2005 Château Cos d'Estournel 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  Dark in colour, glossy. Very Similar to the 05 Montrose but a gear up. This was WOTN by miles on tonight’s tasting too. A touch more oak feel but the wine definitely owns the oak. Quite expressive, well made beautiful structure and sheer class. Young still and 5yrs could help it do wonders but still an excellent wine once again. Spot on consistent with our last note about a year ago. Very balanced and harmoneous wine. 94 for now but an easy 98+ once it its its stride.

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• 2005 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Young and fresh. The nose is full of red fruits at times like an en primeur feel to it. Quite approachable albeit a touch flabby and lacked the concentration of other on the line up. At times we thought it was almost under-oaked if that was ever possible for us to say. A bit of an outlier for us for the vintage and the quality of the producer. 91 still but not sure where it goes from here. For sure not as bad as the critics make it to be though. 91

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• 2005 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Dark wine, no discoloration at all. Nice on the nose, light floral, rich, dark fruits, a touch of oak that complements too. Floral at times. Probably the most expressive nose in the horizontal. Rich wine, almost forward for 2005 standards. Good to see that they did not overdo the oak. Intense and vibrant. 93 not but will a lot of future here.

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• 2005 Château Lynch-Bages 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  DArk in colour. Youthfull glossy. The nose starts with some mocha/coffee notes. Dark fruits. Once again a very young wine but the tannin is very much on the foreground and in a way dominate the wine. Powerfull, mascular and a bit pushing on overextracted. Like most of the 2005s we tried it needs time to develop. We expected a bit more though. 91-92 for now from us but will imporved we think/hope with time.

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