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2005 Bordeaux at 16 years courtesy of Mark Taylor
Atlanta, GA
Tasted June 26, 2021 - June 27, 2021 by Eric with 1,280 views
Introduction
I believe this was my 5th pilgrimage (2012, 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2021) to Atlanta to taste Bordeaux with Mark Taylor and a wonderful assemblage of locals and travelers.
In terms of guessing games, on day 1 I was 0-6, 4-6 and 2-6. That said, I was nearly perfect on right vs. left bank which always makes me happy. On day 2, mixed success on the guesses. I nailed a few including 1 of the 2 wines I spoke on (Pavie Decesse) and was most in tune on the final flight.
2005 is a beautiful but formidably structured vintage. After day 1 at least, it feels like we are getting in quite early, and day 2 shows that these benefit from a lot of aeration. However, the really serious wines feel like they are a minimum 10 years away right now.
Flight 1 - DAY 1: FIRST FLIGHT (6 notes)
This flight was tough sledding with all of the tannins on display and not as much of the charm.
Red
2005 Château d'Angludet
Mmm, horse, tobacco, and pencil lead. Seems pretty clearly to be left bank. Some mint sneaks in. Ample structure. My #1 and group #3. Guessed Lagrange.
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Red
2005 Château Haut-Bergey
Cherry, stem, VA, seems right bank. Never would have guessed Graves. Quite tannic, but it eventually opened a bit. My #5 and the clear group #6. I guessed Grand-Pontet.
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Red
2005 Château Grand Corbin-Despagne
Faint aromatics, red fruit, vitamin pill. Fairly closed in and linear, darned tight. My #4 and the group #5. I guessed Cote de Baleau.
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Red
2005 Château Côte de Baleau
Pencil lead, very mineral. My #6 and the group #4. I guessed Haut-Bergey.
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Red
2005 Château Grand-Pontet
Cherries and cocoa. Clear right bank. Mmm, quite lush with sneaky but fine tannins. My #3 and the group #1. I guessed Grand-Corbin-Despagne.
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Red
2005 Château Lagrange (St. Julien)
Mmmm, pencil lead, tobacco, left bank. Very classic, austere, still on the tannins, clean, very proper, straight down the fairway. My #2 and the group #2. I knew this was either Lagrange or d'Angludet and incorrectly settled on d'Angludet.
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Flight 2 - DAY 1: SECOND FLIGHT (6 notes)
This flight was singing, still young and very structured but starting to get approachable and showing the class and depth. With a steak and a patient few hours, these would all be quite worthwhile
Red
2005 Château Beychevelle
Cool, mint, leaf. Cabernet dominated, lots of leaf and stem. Nicely balanced, quite young but utterly classic. My #3 and the group #5. I correctly guessed Beychevelle.
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Red
2005 Clos de l'Oratoire
Mmmm, cola, aromatic, plum. Pretty closed now but feels very Merlot. My #6 and the group #2. I correctly guessed Clos de l'Oratoire.
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Red
2005 Château Malescot St. Exupéry
Floral, red fruited, classic, austere, clean. I thought perhaps Beychevelle at first impression. My #4 and the group #6. Correctly guessed Malescot.
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Red
2005 Château Calon-Ségur
Mmm, tobacco, cassis, deep, dark and brooding. Structured. My #5 and the group #4. I incorrectly guessed La Lagune.
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Red
2005 Château Gazin Pomerol
Root beer, cola, roasted. Mmm, wow, classic, deep fruit, dark, just fantastic. My #2 and the group #1. I correctly guessed Gazin Pomerol.
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Red
2005 Château La Lagune
Mmm, horse, this is a fantastic nose, coffee, dark, roasted, lots of acid. My #1 and the group #3. I guessed Calon Segur by reversed this with La Lagune.
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Flight 3 - DAY 1: THIRD FLIGHT (6 notes)
Wow, this flight was more impressive than pleasurable, and both first growths felt at least a decade away if not 15 years. Cos and Angelus were screaming good though.
Red
2005 Château Lafite Rothschild
Mmm, pencil lead, coffee, and mineral. Very Lafite like. My #4 and the group #5. Correctly guessed Lafite.
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Red
2005 Château Pontet-Canet
Wow, deep and plummy, whiff of marine air. Very mineral, very structured. Is it Lafite? With time some red fruit comes out which had me thinking this was Angelus for a bit. My #5 and the group #4. In the end I thought Margaux, but it was Pontet-Canet.
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Comments (3)
Red
2005 Château Léoville Barton
Shy nose, cassis, deadly structure. Wow. My #6 and the group #6. I guessed Cos d'Estournelle, but this was Leoville Barton.
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Red
2005 Château Cos d'Estournel
Deep, cassis. Wow, this just blows me away. Earthy, horsey, concentration, breathtaking. My #1 and the group #3. The conversation at our table had some guessing Margaux, but in the end I settled on Pontet-Canet.
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Red
2005 Château Margaux
Reserved, classy. Dark, brooding and intense. My #3 and the group #1. I guessed Barton.
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Red
2005 Château Angélus
Cherry, right bank? Gains a lot of depth with a plummy, fruit driven, cassis body. The purity of the flavor profile had me thinking about Lafite for a while, but you have to trust your first impression. My #2 and the group #2. Correctly guessed Angelus.
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Comments (1)
Flight 4 - DAY 2: FIRST FLIGHT (6 notes)
Much more approachable than the first flight on Saturday, as the group elected to double-decant all the wines a couple of hours earlier. They clearly benefited from this with the possible exception of the very oxidative Monbousquet.
Red
2005 Château Lanessan
Mint, tobacco, spicy, barnyard, gaining some more explosive floral notes, seems obviously left bank. Tannic, dark, mineral, cool, quite reserved, a pretty wine but ultimately fairly stern. My #4 and the group #4. I guessed Prieure-Lichine.
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Red
2005 Château Sénéjac
Some heat on the nose, cherry, vanilla, almost a vanilla cough syrup note. Despite the somewhat offputting nose, it has a nice palate, lush with terrific red fruit, very approachable which is a rarity in this vintage. My #6 and the group #5 but an enjoyable wine regardless. I guessed Lucia.
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Red
2005 Château Lucia
A shy nose, vitamin, iron, blood and red currant. A very mineral palate, aloof, pure with clean fruit, sort of a cranberry profile but with darker, toastier overtones. My #5 and the group #3. I guessed Senejac.
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Red
2005 Château Prieuré-Lichine
Mmmmmm, horsey, stern, dark and brooding, screams left bank. Me likey!!! This wine reminds me of early tastes of 2005, balanced, lots of fruit, juicy, but with great acid and tannic structure. This wine is a winner. My #1 and the clear group #1. I guessed Saint-Pierre.
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Red
2005 Château Saint-Pierre
Roasted, earthy, soy/shiitake, some heat. A dark palate, coffee, just delicious. It screamed to me of Monbousquet with an explosive palate, espresso and more coffee, coffee, coffee. My #2 and the group #2. Alas, it was not Monbo.
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Red
2005 Château Monbousquet
Stemmy, cherry, celery seed and clear hints of oxidation. It does improve a bit with air. A dark fruit profile, very acid as well, red currant, looooong, dusty tannins. My #3 and the group #6. I guessed Lanessan.
Flight 5 - DAY 2: SECOND FLIGHT (6 notes)
Just as the day before, the middle flight is the sweet spot of relative readiness, a lot of steak wines that kick you in the teeth for now.
Red
2005 Château Pavie Decesse
Another oxidative nose. Coffee. After the Monbousquet in the last flight this was obviously another Perse wine. Kirsch and a laser of cherry/red fruit. Very mineral, clean. My initial impression from the palate was Clinet, but with more air a roasted character comes out. My #6 and the group #6, and I successfully picked out the Pavie-Decesse.
Red
2005 Château Clinet
Mmmmm, now THAT is a nose! Earthy and horsey. The palate is an explosion of fruit, mineral and tobacco, just textbook Bordeaux, wow! Juicy and regal. My #1 and the group #3. I thought Brane-Cantenac.
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Red
2005 Château Brane-Cantenac
Horsey and funky, hello Mr. Ed! Another explosive palate, dark, cool, juicy and kaleidescopic. Super fine tannins, wow! My #2 and the group #4. I guessed Branaire-Ducru.
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Red
2005 Château Lafon-Rochet
Bright cherry with some heat on the nose. Dark chocolate and bitter notes on the palate but in a good way. Red fruit. Is this right bank? My #5 and the group #2. I guessed Kirwan.
Red
2005 Château Kirwan
Graphite, left bankish, Pauillac sort of yumminess. Remarkable concentration with huge tannins, glorious fruit, long, layered and stern. My #3 and the group #1. I guessed Lafon-Rochet.
2 people found this helpful
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Red
2005 Château Branaire-Ducru
Ebullient nose with red fruit, an an herbal/vegetal/vitamin component. Wants steak with massive structure, very red fruit profile. My #4 and the group #5. I guessed Clinet.
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Comments (3)
Flight 6 - DAY 2: THIRD FLIGHT (6 notes)
Here we hit the heights of 2005 and showed that makes the vintage so exciting, a powerful combination of ample fruit and huge structure.
Red
2005 Clos Fourtet
Shy with a hint of cherry, white pepper, sharp on the back of the nostrils. A liqueur personality, spicy, hot a laser of fruit intensity. More mineral and subtle on the finish. My #6 and the group #6. I was sure this was either Clos Fourtet or Alter Ego but settled on the wrong one.
Red
2005 Château Mouton Rothschild
Mmmmm, funk and horse, wow!!! Spicecake, roasted coffee, an awesome nose! Silk on the palate, cherry and coffee, superfine tannins, just gorgeous. My #1 and the group #1. I guessed Haut-Brion.
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Red
2005 Alter Ego
Perfumed and floral, red fruit, alcohol. A bittersweet, cranberry palate, cocoa, cherry liqueur. Intense and noticeably hot. Is this right bank? My #5 and the group #4. I knew it was Alter Ego or Clos Fourtet and guessed incorrectly.
Red
2005 Château Léoville Poyferré
Funky, mushroom nose, acrid, some forest floor. Faintly smoky, is this Haut Brion? Moves to cherry and a massive wall of fruit, slightly tough tannins, but wow what a wine. Bloody and intense, dark brooding. My #3 and the group #2. I correctly guessed Leoville-Poyferre. It held its own easily with the first growths!
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Comments (5)
Red
2005 Château Latour Grand Vin
Reticent, soy, dense, almost unyielding on the nose. Tobacco and leaf on the palate, OMG, wow what a wine! My #2 and the group #3. I correctly guessed Latour.
Red
2005 Château Haut-Brion
Vitamin, mineral, some horse stink, iron. Red fruit with really nice acidity, somewhat unforgiving, actually sort of rips the roof off your mouth. Slightly bitter finish, drying, powerful, a real hammer. My #4 and the group #5. I felt pretty certain this would be Mouton or Poyferre and settled on Mouton.
Closing
Thank you again to Mark Taylor and all of the various attendees who brought some fascinating wines to dinner Friday night and to share at dinners after the tastings.