2005 Bordeaux, Branaire , Labegorce , Pavie, Talbot , Rauzan

[spikegrhm]

Recently enjoyed a BYOB dinner with a dozen and a half wine drinkers at True in Montgomery , Alabama. The wines centered around 2005 Bordeaux with a few extras. I did not take notes so I will only give a group re-cap. I have had quite a few 2005 RB wines which are showing nicely. However , I have not tasted a LB in a couple of years( I tried both a Branaire and a Clerc Milon in 2003 finding them generally closed ).Consequently, I was quite interested to see how they have progressed. I was not prepared for the results. All of these wines were entirely open for business ! All showed healthy doses of fruit , sweet and fresh. The tannins are present, yet smooth. All wines were quite primary with little in the world of sophistication that one would expect from old bones . Still they were simply fun. For those case buyers who like to track evolution once wines are starting to reach a reasonable window , your time appears to be now. I have to make a statement about Pavie since this wine appears to crank so many motors from all points of the compass. This wine certainly had the biggest sense of fruit , blue and sweet. That should be the cases vs. the others as this was the only Right Banker. Still it showed beautifully. Spine was substantial . Consequently , one would guess that it should continue to age well. Worth the cost of admission ? Let the buyer be the judge. I felt that the two winners were Branaire and Talbot. Certainly not old school . Simply superb wines showing young charm. I

[DavidG]

Sounds like a pleasant surprise! Early word on 2005 left bank was that they would take a looong time to come around. Thanks for the update. Might have to move a few of these up into the try this year queue.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Thanks. I have been greatly preoccupied and have shirked my note-taking and posting duties. Since making it back to the mainland I have been opening mostly 2005s as they were at the top of my pile here. And while they are below the level of those growths the overall impression is the same. The wines, especially the RBs, are great. I agree that they don't have all the nuances of additional aging but they are very pleasing now and what's more appear to have plenty of material to develop those nuances. These smaller wines will be drinking well for another 20 years. When I get more motivated I'll rundown these names and some other notables from the past two months.

[robert goulet]

I love me some 2005 labegorce....I have had this twice...one bottle left...underrated margaux