Wine Group Dinner #168 - 2005 Bordeaux Part 1

Our second dinner for the year was the first of 2 parts examining the 2005 Bordeaux vintage focusing on highly rated non-First Growth Wines from the Left Bank. We had 3 excellent savoury courses with the 3 main flights finishing with cheese. The first wine with stand up savouries was to be the Palmer but given a just completed Federal Election, one of the group kindly brought along a celebratory Champagne to toast our good fortune at living in a country where elections are held peacefully and with not too much rancour !

• 1997 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. A celebratory start to a 2005 Bordeaux dinner, this wine had an aged salmon pink colour with a brown edge. The nose was lovely with touches of strawberry, nectarine and nougat and the palate had nice profile and terrific drive but the fruit was slightly faded and the intensity on the palate suffered for that. A good start but best perhaps 10 years back.

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• 2005 Château Palmer 98 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. This wine remains a deep crimson with a nose that leaps from the glass. It leads with beautiful black currants, dark cherries, licorice and dark chocolate coated violets. The palate is immediately rich and round yet there is a freshness and length that provides symmetry and beauty. The flavours linger for an age and leave a memory of a great Palmer.

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• 2005 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Tainted although group discussion could not agree whether it was a bottling or handling fault.

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• 2005 Château Smith Haut Lafitte 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. This was the second bottle opened, the first clearly tainted. The colour was deep crimson and the nose a striking and somewhat exotic mix of blackcurrant, charcoal, tobacco and earth. The palate was slightly heavy but rich and balanced with lots of nuance and interest. There was a fine tannic finish but the overall sense was of richness and exoticism. Very attractive yet perhaps lacking the purity of the best 05s.

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• 2005 Château Haut-Bailly 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. A wine somewhat lost in stronger company the 05 Haut Bailly has a deep colour and a lovely nose of blackcurrant, dark cherries, dark chocolate and tobacco. The palate is medium bodied and supremely elegant with a long persistent finish and lovely balance, not showy yet fine.

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• 2005 Château Pape Clément 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 05 Pape Clement is an opulent mouthful of Graves, well balanced yet rich with a touch of exoticism that sits well within the overall structure. The nose is beautiful with plenty of blackcurrant, tobacco, dark cherry and dark chocolate yet there are balancing touches of violet and spice. The palate is round and soft yet linear and strong in its finish. Overall this opened beautifully tonight.

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• 2005 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. This wine has a deep crimson colour with a very attractive classic nose of blackcurrant, dark plum, cedar and lead pencil. The nose evolves and changes with more complexity apparent with time in the glass and the palate similarly builds with time with a lovely mix of fruits yet it remains quite austere on the long finish. There is a sense of youth in this bottle that suggests more time will bring even more reward.

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• 2005 Château Montrose 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 05 Montrose is a cracker of a wine with a dense dark crimson colour and a rich and bright nose of blackcurrant, plum, dark cherry, dark chocolate, charcoal and all-spice. The palate is deeply flavoured and round with beautiful inflections of flavour leading into a finely tannic and lengthy finish. A great bottle of Montrose whose purity is an object lesson cf the 2003 which is rich yes but fine and pure not quite.

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• 2005 Château Cos d'Estournel 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Wine Group dinner #168, Urbane. The 05 Cos is a superb wine with a dense crimson colour and an exotic nose of blackcurrant, dark fleshed plums, BBQ smoke, charcoal and tobacco. The palate is rich yet held in check by a lovely texture and freshness that defines 2005. The length is a real highlight and while I preferred the purity of the Montrose its very much an observation of personal preference.

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• 2005 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. Another terrific 2005, the Pichon Baron has that trademark pure deep crimson colour and a rich nose of blackcurrant, dark raspberries, plums, cedar and graphite. The palate is weighty yet well balanced by a long line of fine tannin and minerality that provides grip and definition. This is a very pure and precise wine destined for a long future.

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• 2005 Château Pontet-Canet 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 2005 Pontet Canet is a very dense crimson colour with a nose of blackcurrant pastilles, black raspberry, dark chocolate with violet touches, spice and cedar. The palate is rich and round with plenty of complexity that edges on the exotic without crossing over. There is perhaps not the persistence of other wines tasted tonight but the whole package is quite primary and there is plenty of life ahead to develop that ! Delicious.

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• 2005 Château Léoville Las Cases 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  Wine Group Dinner #168, Urbane. The 2005 Las Cases is a regal wine with a very deep crimson colour and a very correct nose of blackcurrants, black raspberries and cherries, cedar and charcoal, dark chocolate and lead pencil. The palate is finely constructed with beautiful linearity yet the fruit has a richness and mouthfeel that balances the austerity and a great persistence. This is very good wine that may reveal even more over the next 10 years and which is an exemplar for the purity of the best 2005s.

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The lingering memory of these wines is purity and classicism with intensity and balance across the whole group. This, for me, places 2005 at the very top of the pile of post 1982 vintages. The wines are still developing and will give pleasure for many years ahead. The 1st Growths will be interesting !