TN: 2005 Château Cap de Faugères

[JimHow]

• 2005 Château Cap de Faugères - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Côtes de Castillon (7/29/2010)
  Well this little lady has settled down from her early wild days. You know how His Majesty Robert M. Parker, Jr., rated this wine 89-92 points? Well, it's an 89-pointer. Cap de Faugeres is actually *two* wines: There is the wine at age 2-3, recently released from bottle-- jammy, tar, alcoholic, walking the tightrope between respectability and pornography and, in the end, somehow avoiding a fall to the unforgiving concrete below. Then there is this wine: Evolving (or devolving(?)) into a somewhat pedantic, flaccid, unexciting effort. I'm not inclined to rate it lower, though, for one simple reason.... Duh, just drink it young! This is a fun and enjoyable wine to drink in its first five years after it hits the shelves. It doesn't benefit from aging. That doesn't mean it is a *bad* wine. It is what it is. Enjoy it for what it is. After my first experience with this property, from the 2005 vintage, I'm planning on buying 6-12 bottles from 2009... and I'll drink every one of them before they are five years old. (89 pts.)

[robert goulet]

drink it young and then move to the '05 Vieux Château Champs de Mars Côtes de Castillon Cuvée Johanna, a good ager and to me the superior wine for the same price.

[AlexR]

05 Vieux Château Champs de Mars Côtes de Castillon Cuvée Johanna

Congratulations!
Now THERE is a true connoisseur's wine.
NOT a Léoville Las Cases, but a damned good wine at an affordable price.
One that can hold it's head high with competition from ANYWHERE.
One that gives a good name to Bordeaux (because it's the antithesis of a snob wine).

I am happy to see that such wines can be found in the US.

All the best,
Alex R.

[Chasse-Spleen]

But just a trifle of an overblown name, perhaps? They need to work on the marketing there.

[robert goulet]

The '01 Johanna right now is fantasic, pop it if you got it!!

[johnz]

I bought (and largely consumed) 6 of these in the 2000 vintage. It never did much for me, and was one of my disappointing "lesser" 2000 purchases. I think it's correct to drink these very young -- the older the 2000s got the leaner and greener they seemed. I won't buy this house again.

--Gary Rust

[cassetta]

Jim,

What do you consider 5 years old? Five years from the vintage, hence the '05's are just about to turn 5, or 5 years from release? I think that the '05 Cap de Faugeres will actually improve for a couple of more years and be in a sweet spot from 2012-2017. It was a nice QPR for $18.

[JimHow]

You may be right cassetta. I really enjoyed this wine right after it hit the shelves, probably drank about ten bottles, foundy it racy, rich and voluptuous. This most recent bottle seemed a bit flatter, but then again I found both of the 2005s I had this week to be in an awkward state.

[cassetta]

I decided to open a bottle and I'm drinking it now. It has calmed down a bit from it's big upfront fruit, still plenty of structure though. Seems to be shedding it's baby fat and starting to show some earth. A few more years will be helpful, but it's still a nice quaff now.

[rjsussex]

agree with Gary re the 2000 - became positively unpleasant very quickly after its first flush of youth

Richard