Bordeaux 2005 horizontal

Bordeaux 2025 horizontal tasting of 50 wines. Key takeaways: i/ A tale of two completely different evolutions for the right and left bank. The left bank is starting to come around 20 years on with extraordinarily high average quality and numerous slumbering stars surprises. ii/ The right bank was a shocker of catastrophic scale. Across the board we observed >50% of wines being faulty (cork, nail polish) or outright oxidized. iii/ A tannic vintage on either side, but more round and better balanced on the left while drying, unripe and coarse on the right. iv/ The fruit is generally extracted, ripe and sweet. But the range is from still generously fresh all the way to cooked fruit. iv/ only rare instances of tertiary notes and more often closed bouquets which suggest that as a vintage 2005 is only just slowly starting to enter the drinking window. v/ On the left bank Pessac felt least approachable, but structurally intact.

Event details: 50 wines tasted single-blind over 2 days. All wines were opened shortly before the start, but not decanted. Served in flights of 4. Roughly 15min per flight.

List of wines by appellation

St. Esèphe
Calon Ségur 94

Pauillac
Lafite 97
Mouton 96
Lynch Bages 92
Pontet Canet 92
Latour NR
Grand-Puy-Lacoste NR

St. Julien
Léoville Las Cases 94
Branaire-Ducru 90
Lagrange 88
Léoville-Barton 88

Margaux
Ch. Margaux 95
Palmer 94
D’Issan 94
Rauzan-Ségla 93
Brane-Cantenac 89

Péssac-Léognan
Haut-Brion 96
Malartic Lagraviere 95
Luchey-Halde 94
Branon 94
Pape Clément 92
Haut Bailly 91
Smith-Haut-Lafitte 90
Les Carmes Haut-Brion 89
La Mission Haut-Brion NR

Pomerol
Troplong Mondot 92
L’Eglise-Clinet 90
Lafleur 90
La Mondotte 89
Clos l‘Eglise 88
Trotanoy 88
Valandrau 87
Péby-Faugères 84
Pavie 80
Pavie Macquin 81
L‘Evangile NR
Pétrus NR

St. Emilion
Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarosse 90
Canon 92
Angélus 93
Figeac 87
Ausone 87
Pavie Decesse 87
Bellevue Mondotte 75
Clos Fourtet NR

Sauternes
Nairac 97
Yquem 93

Others
Clos Manou 93
La Mauriane 87
Dubois-Grimon 87

• 2005 Château Branaire-Ducru 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  (6/1/2025)

  A duopoly of red and dark cherry, appropriately ripe and interlaced with barnyard, leather and a fine, fresh herbal layer. Cooler mineral notes of pencil shavings. On the palate pretty firm tannins, quite well balanced although a splash more acidity would have been welcome – especially towards the drying finish. Also, rather low aromatic intensity on the palate.

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• 2005 Château Lagrange (St. Julien) 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  (6/1/2025)

  Hints of coffee, but suppressed fruit and felt quite closed. The fruit was more on the red berry side with red currant and cherries. Smoky minerality. Light fresh herbs which partly left you with an element of unripe flavors. The palate shows slightly more present fruit, but again green herbals that feel more vegetal. The balance was lacking and the finish was overly finish.

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• 2005 Château Léoville Barton 86 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  (6/1/2025)

  A touch cooked fruit, but still identifiable bramble berries and dark cherries. Darker leather notes, but otherwise rather limited complexity. The palate with limited fruit, rather drying tannin and feels pretty disjointed towards the finish. Could be another 20 years for the palate to settle but by then the fruit will be long gone.

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• 2005 Château Léoville Las Cases 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  (6/1/2025)

  A nicely extracted, dense and polished fruit of red cherries with an overlay of perfume that adds floral lightness. Fine minty elements. A juicy palate with present fruit. Quite drying tannin but balance is definitely there. This is a fine an elegant wine that is still a bit too rustic on the palate - will come around with another 5+ years I reckon.

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• 2005 Château Calon-Ségur 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  (6/1/2025)

  Nice intensity with a varied set of dark berry fruit – dark cherry, brambleberry but also blueberry. Quite sweet and in a good way features of confiture. A mineral layer of lead and ash as well as fine layers of sous-bois and leather. Great intensity with fresh acidity easily balancing the firm, still quite grainy and even mouthcoating tannins. More cellaring needed, but would imagine already works well with a long decant and paired with food.

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• 2005 Clos Manou 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc

  (6/1/2025)

  A darker fruit profile with dark cherries and plenty of depth from cold black coffee, wet leather, mineral notes of graphite that border coal. The fruit was overall quite ripe and sweet. On the palate fresh acidity with a juicy fruit. Quite drying into the finish. Lingering tobacco aftertaste. Solid.

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• 2005 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  Corked. Felt like a potentially nice fruit underneath, but hard to identify anything with any degree of confidence.

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• 2005 Château Lynch-Bages 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  Fruit profile includes red cherry, dark cherry, and maybe plums. That said, in a pretty closed state right now with only hints of herbs and iodine. The balance was not quite there yet with too much tannic weight, but the acidity felt otherwise good.

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• 2005 Château Lafite Rothschild 97 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  A blow-out nose, bursting with secondary and tertiary aromas of espresso, tobacco, dark leather, and black chocolate. This is held together by a cord of graphite minerality. As a juxtaposition you’ll find an airy freshness from varied herbs, salad seasoning and dark flowers. There’s so much going on on all the side stages you almost forget about the precise and delineated, ripe cherry and black currant fruit. A structured palate with plenty of tannins, but these feel soft and polished. The acidity is sufficient to convey a sense of harmony. Of course still early days here and the wine does feel a bit chewy into the finish. But what’s evident is that this is a bold, imposing and dense yet elegant and light-footed wine built for the ages. Without a doubt the winner of this 2005 horizontal, both for me and for most of the tasting group, and ahead of Mouton (runner-up) and Latour (corked). Best Lafite I’ve had to date and ahead of the 2003.

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• 2005 Château Pontet-Canet 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  Rather limited in terms of expression right out of the gate. Shows notes of cold coffee, but with a ripe, sweet and sexy fruit of dark berries and blueberries. Just a bit of wet earth and leather to ground things. Feels a touch too polished, flat even, and was not sure if there were some traces of volatile acidity. The latter not present on the palate, however, which show fresh palate, exhibited great balance and good acidity. Balance not ideal due to rather grainy tannins.

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• 2005 Château Mouton Rothschild 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  A varied and precise nose, even if not fully expressive at this stage. Plenty of pencil shavings and ripe dark fruit which provides for a sweet and sexy impression. Hints of underwood and leather. An intense and muscular palate with fresh acidity perfectly matching the firm but round tannins. A great Mouton and top 3 for me in the horizontal, but bested by a spectacular Lafite.

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• 2005 Château Latour Grand Vin Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  (6/1/2025)

  Corked unfortunately, no notes possible.

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• 2005 Château d'Issan 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (6/1/2025)

  An attractively perfumed and scented bouquet. Herbal complexity adds a minty freshness to the more iodine-like mineral base. Blue and darker berry fruit. The palate is juicy with ideal acidity, adding a touch of black chocolate to the aromatics. Good length and finely-grained tannins. Yummy and equally good to the 2010 at the same stage in its life. On a par with a somewhat restrained Palmer in this tasting.

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• 2005 Château Brane-Cantenac 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (6/1/2025)

  Nice breadth from black chocolate and cold black coffee notes. An element of nail polish that I can‘t swirl away (others did not agree, however). Lighter floral touches. The palate with decent balance, but lacks mid-palate presence and revealing slightly unripe, green tannins into the finish.

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• 2005 Château Margaux 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (6/1/2025)

  A dense wine with a fleshy base. Ripe dark bramble berry and cherry fruit. Mineral notes of graphite and fresh herbal notes. Leathery dimension, too. Good balance on the palate, fresh acidity that keep the quite grainy tannins in check at least through mid-palate. While not quite an contender for the top spot in this horizontal, Margaux was nonetheless the top shot in the appellation and one of the highlights – as the estate tends to be in tastings…

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• 2005 Château Palmer 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (6/1/2025)

  A bit restrained or closed. A chiseled dark cherry fruit on top of a leathery and sous-bois base. Limited complexity otherwise. However, what follows is a quite spectacular entry to the palate with juicy freshness, intense fruit, lots of power and good balance – however, towards the finish the acids felt rather tart the tannins somewhat rustic. I’m guessing not in a good phase right now, but to forget another 5 years.

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• 2005 Château Rauzan-Ségla 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  (6/1/2025)

  A leathery base, mostly dark berry fruit with red cherry accents. Mineral notes of smoke and graphite and floral top notes. There is a humble grace to the tightly knit bouquet. Good tension and balance is there, eve if the tannins have mouthcoating features towards the finish.

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• 2005 Château Luchey-Halde 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  The fruit profile feels comparatively light with more red berries in the mix. Still sweet but also fresh. Cooler mineral layers and leather. With aeration this adds minor brett. There is a nice flow from attack to finish, supported by firm tannins, fresh acids and culminating in a tobacco finish. Lacks precision and stature to an extent, but a very respectable and palatable wine – especially for an estate I have not heard of before.

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• 2005 Château Malartic-Lagravière 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  Incredibly layered with endless aromatic detail, even if rather humble in terms of intensity. Red cherry fruit core coupled with blue and darker complements. Dense and polished appearance. Fine mineral and herbal layers on a thin, leathery foundation. Tense mid-palate with vibrant acids, all in harmony with the still quite grainy tannins. Good length and presence. As only point of contention I would note that that the acidity leans towards tart in the finish. Otherwise impressive and judging from this bottle one of the hidden gems in the vintage.

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• 2005 Château Branon 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  Another example of a somewhat closed 2005. Kicks off with just a whiff of coffee and a combination of red and darker cherries. Fine layers of floral and herbal notes emerge with aeration with the latter, especially, presenting themselves in a compelling variability. Incredibly light palate, dancing through the attack. But then starts to lose some balance from the mid-palate onwards. As was the case with the 2010, in 2005 Branon is clearly punching above it’s weigh class.

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• 2005 Château Haut-Bailly 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  A bit closed and hence lower intensity. Bright red and dark berry fruit with only modest extraction. Fresh, thick herbal layer and a bit of leather and wet earth as a base. The palate unexpectedly dense and concentrated, but with a lack of mid-palate and then quite drying tannins towards the end with a toned down fruit.

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• 2005 Château Smith Haut Lafitte 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  Black coffee and smoke with a varied fruit platter of blueberries, cherries and red and black currant. A touch of meaty flavors, fresher minty herbs and mineral notes of lead provide for nice verticality. Dense into the attack, but then slams on the breaks with an abrupt finish, leaving behind only skid marks of drying tannins. From the early-2000s era my preference would be for the stellar 2000.

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• 2005 Château Pape Clément 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  A fine and detailed nose with darker fruit, black coffee, layered herbs – alas all with a bit lower intensity. An almost creamy palate with a great texture, but after the mid-palate the acidity turns rather tart and tannins become mouthcoating, leaving you with a chewy and drying finish. This no doubt needs another decade or more for all to fall into place.

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• 2005 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  Pretty much closed for business at this stage, but still lets the potential for plenty of detail shine through. Coffee notes and a darker fruit profile. For me also notes of acetone start to pop up after a while - but not a consistent view amongst the group. Note sure... Alas, the palate struggles to find balance with very drying and unripe tannin.

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• 2005 Château La Mission Haut-Brion Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  This has disintegrated. Cooked fruit and vinegar on the nose, hard to pinpoint anything beyond. Assuming a bad bottle.

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• 2005 Château Haut-Brion 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  (6/1/2025)

  A broad fan of aromas, showing coffee, espresso, chocolate, sweet and fresh fruit, a floral touch and elements of herbal freshness and earth. The palate is virile, dense and juicy. But also wild and choppy – clearly not yet ready and will need more time.

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• 2005 La Mauriane 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Puisseguin Saint-Émilion

  (6/2/2025)

  Scented with perfume along with a highly extracted, overly ripe and raisiny fruit that is just about not yet cooked fruit. Sweet oak and minor leather. The palate already feels a bit tired. Lacks mid-palate presence. Drying and coarse tannins. The fruit already in descent, although a bit of aeration helps to bring some freshness back.

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• 2005 Château Dubois-Grimon 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux

  (6/2/2025)

  From Magnum. Limited expression. Darker fruit profile, leather and animal undertones along with darker herbs. Maybe lighter floral top notes, but hard to discern anything as not much delineation. The palate lacks aromatic presence and produces rather searing acidity towards the finish with coarse, unripe tannins.

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• 2005 Château Bellevue Mondotte 75 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Advanced, already oxidized notes of cooked fruit along with minor leathery and coffee notes. On the nose this feels barely alive. The palate is disjointed, I couldn‘t even keep this in the mouth for more than 2 seconds. An not unpleasant, leathery aftertaste is worth noting, but not enough to count as a redeeming feature.

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• 2005 Château Pavie Decesse 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Limited expression. While somewhat unclean, there is still an acceptably fresh fruit with some sweeter accents around the red cherry. That said, it feels like at the verge of the tipping point and after a few minutes in the glass the fruit actually starts to show cooked features. The palate lacks balance with searing acidity and rough tannins, but is still alive and benefits from a juicy touch.

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• 2005 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse) 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Quite layered aging notes of tobacco, earth and leather. Not overly expressive and the fruit is clearly ripe, but not overripe and still with sufficient crispiness. Red currant fruit with floral and herbal dimensions still present. The palate is not ideal with quite mouthcoating tannins, but fully intact and could even benefit from a few more years of cellaring.

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• 2005 Château Canon 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Highly appealing coffee and black chocolate aromas, light floral top notes and herbal seasoning. Minor earthy and leathery flavors, too. The palate leans towards acidity and hence lacks the full structural support. Grainy tannins towards the finish. Almost too much tension, but overall not bad at all.

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• 2005 Château Figeac 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Black coffee, a lactic touch and on balance darker red berry fruit. There are still traces of herbs and floral notes, but starting to fade. The palate slightly flat with an abrupt finish, leaving you with not much more than drying in the end. A clearly underwhelming Figeac.

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• 2005 Clos Fourtet Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Oxidized. Apart from Cognac no pure flavors discernible anymore.

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• 2005 Château Angélus 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Fruit of blue and red berries. Nicely layered with floral top notes, fresh herbs and a grounding mineral base. The fruit is dense and has a sexy, sweet confiture character. Tense palate with a sweet juicy fruit. The one drawback I would flag is notable heat on the palate, especially towards the finish. Otherwise very youthful and tannic. Lots of hedonistic appeal, but given the vintage a big question mark whether this will survive long enough for the palate to fully integrate.

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• 2005 Château Ausone 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  A sweet, rather plumy fruit. Iodine minerality and herbal layers. Sweeter oak notes add some racy class. Time adds an element of peppery spice. So far so promising, but then all falls apart. The palate unfortunately lacks any aromas what so ever. Abrupt finish, ending immediately at the attack, leaving you with greenish, coarse mouthcoating tannins. In 2021 this showed leagues better, could be bottle variation.

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• 2005 Château L'Evangile Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  Corked. underlying fruit also came across rather cooked.

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• 2005 Clos l'Église (Pomerol) 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  Malty notes along with extracted fruit that felt like potentially at the verge of withering, but still okish today. More dark than red cherry, leathery and earthy undertones. Just memories of floral notes. The palate still quite fresh but with rather drying, not well integrated tannins.

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• 2005 Château Trotanoy 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  Ripe, darker cherry fruit with a splash of Kirsch. There were hints of acetone or nail polish which masked anything else that might be going on. Very nice palate, however, with plenty of coffee notes and a fresher fruit. Racy acids balance the tannic structure. This could have been great if the nose had held up. With aeration the fruit starts to collapse and descend into beef juice.

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• 2005 Château L'Eglise-Clinet 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  This resembles most what I would call a classic red bank nose. Decent minerality, a ripe, but sweet and fresh fruit, scented with flowers and fresh herbs. The palate not as nice, suffers from imbalance with mouthcoating tannins, especially into the finish. Also rather limited aromatic intensity.

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• 2005 Pétrus Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  From a 1 bottle OWC. Another shocker from Pétrus. Oxidized, only beef juice left.

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• 2005 Château Lafleur 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  (6/2/2025)

  Leathery with animal base notes. Among the 2005 right banks the most pronounced tertiary aroma profile with tobacco and scorched earth. The fruit has still a fresh character, although there is also an unripe feature to it. The palate is lively with fresh fruit and acceptable balance, but doesn‘t really manage to impress any grandeur. Between 1998 and 2015 the weakest Lafleur I’ve tasted to date.

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• 2005 Château Pavie 80 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  A lot of beef juice already, over-extracted and on its way to the deathbed - but not quite there yet. Some herbal and tertiary aromatics are hanging in there. On the nose not much else going on. The palate still with some redeeming features. Very advanced and mature, but still with fresh fruit. This may still appeal to a highly particular palate, but not much joy for most. As a remark: Last time I had this in 2019 this was still going strong, felt youthful and at the very beginning of its drinking window. Could be bottle variation here.

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• 2005 Château Péby Faugères 84 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Malty aromas and mashed, oxidized fruit. Some lighter herbs and leathery base. The confiture nature of the fruit adds a sweet angle that could have been somewhat appealing. Advanced and mature palate, still intact but with notable heat and a rustic, disjointed finish.

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• 2005 Château Pavie Macquin 81 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Maggi and beef juice mostly. There are still notable traces of a fresh, even if ripe, red berry elements and a faint herbal frame. The palate very mature with again fresher berry fruit left which keeps this alive – even if barely so.

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• 2005 La Mondotte 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Limited expression. Mature and ripe fruit, leather and toasted wood. Maybe dried herbs with imagination, but not adding much more. The palate much fresher with juicy features. Rather mouthcoating tannins and lacks a finish to speak of.

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• 2005 Château Troplong Mondot 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  A nose of ripe, varied red berries that read sexy and fresh thanks to sweeter touches. With imagination also herbal and spicy dimensions. The palate shows light, red fruit and is nicely juicy – although there’s also plenty of heat which puts a big lid on the enjoyment factor.

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• 2005 Château Valandraud 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  (6/2/2025)

  Tertiary notes of tobacco and leather, but otherwise limited expression. Red cherry fruit with darker mineral elements of coal or graphite. There is still some fruit left on the palate, but the tannins are incredibly drying and linger on well beyond the finish.

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• 2005 Château Nairac 97 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac

  (6/2/2025)

  Precise, detailed and very complex. Layered with light spicy top notes, saffron, wild forest honey and candid stone fruit. On the palate a creamy texture with fresh acidity and a strong follow-through to the vibrant and everlasting finish. This screamed Yquem, but alas was not. Nairac 2005 has been mostly good to very good in the last few years, but this bottle was exceptional and knocked it out of the park, especially with Yquem next to it. That said, with time in the glass and slightly higher temperature the difference started to fade, but I did no longer capture that in this note.

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• 2005 Château d'Yquem 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  (6/2/2025)

  Lighter honey notes, caramel, but somewhat subdued fruit and probably got off to a closed start here. Only distant aromas of herbs. The palate felt slightly plump and flat - writing this while this was already revealed to be Yquem. Decent freshness but not as detailed as other vintages. This was paired against the Nariac 2005 and without a doubt the Nariac was playing in a different league this time round. That said, with time in the glass and slightly higher temperature the difference started to fade, but I did no longer capture that in this note.

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