Bordeaux 2005 Vintage Report
By Jasper Morris MW
Local expert Bill Blatch describes 2005 as ";a text-book harvest for all of Bordeaux. The sun shone almost permanently and the showers came exactly when and where required to add the final touch, and all this after a dry hot season, during which what little rain there was fell just before all the vital sequences of the vine's cycle. What more could we have asked for?";
Weather Conditions
In the absence of such calamities as frost, hail, or a plague of locusts, the key meteorological parameters for the vintage were rainfall, sunshine and temperatures.
Rainfall: Eleven of the twelve months from November 2004 to October 2005 were below average for rainfall (April being the exception); the overall figure of 476mm being 48% below the norm.
This deficiency had the positive effect of concentrating the grapes by reducing the juice to skins ratio. Happily most of the negative aspects of drought were avoided thanks to useful showers at the right time - April for the budding, late May to encourage the flowering, 27th-28th July to kick-start véraison, 8th-12th September to refresh the Merlot on the eve of final ripening and the same for the Cabernets on the 25th.
Sauternes even got its own beneficial shower on 31st August to encourage botrytis.
Sunshine: While the rain was not falling, the sun was shining, encouraging unprecedented degrees in all grapes. Not a good vintage for the sugar merchants, I fear.
Temperatures: Yet despite the hours of sunshine, the heat was never excessive as it had been in 2003. Only June ( 2.7º) and beneficially October ( 3.0º) were much above the monthly average. August and September were approximately the norm, and indeed the cool nights leading into harvest maintained acidity and has given the wines a striking and welcome freshness.
With low yields, thick skins, concentrated juice and fully ripe grapes, the whole balanced by enough acidity from cool September nights to keep the wines fresh, what more indeed could we ask for?
The Left Bank
This is a truly outstanding vintage for the Cabernet based wines of the Left Bank - not only of exceptional quality but with an unusually high proportion of successful châteaux. Time and again proprietors told us that they were thrilled with the quality of their Merlot this year but that even so the Merlot could not compare with the glorious Cabernets - reaching 13% alcohol naturally for the first time at many estates.
Standards of winemaking are currently high in the Médoc, with almost all producers understanding the need to get the work in the vineyard right and very few trying subsequently to soup the wines up with unnatural practices.
St
Estèphe
Cos d'Estournel, Montrose and Calon Ségur have all
produced brilliant wines in 2005 and we tasted many very good examples at lower
levels (Ormes de Pez, Le Crock). The clay-rich soils of the commune retained
water well during this very dry summer, and both Cabernet and Merlot were
hugely successful.
Pauillac
We were especially impressed by the wines at the St Estèphe end of the village
- Lafite is outstanding, Pontet Canet is the best we have ever
seen and Mouton the best for many years - but having said that there are
stunning wines throughout the commune, not least the awesome Lynch Bages
and top efforts from Grand Puy Lacoste and Batailley. I don't
think we tasted a poor wine among the classed growths while at lower levels
Haut Bages Averous and Pibran knocked our socks off.
St
Julien
The near uniform success story continues through the St Julien classed growths
with Gruaud Larose and Leoville Poyferré batting above their
stations and Beychevelle much improved.Léoville Barton, Léoville Las
Cases, Branaire, Talbot - a roll call of success. Don't
ignore Clos du Marquis either. Throughout the commune the glorious
Cabernet speaks with a loud voice but cannot drown the nature of the
terroir.
Margaux
Drawing consistent conclusions from this vast commune normally flummoxes us,
but we were pretty impressed across the board. Both Margaux and
Palmer are transcendentally sublime, and every wine seems to show the
essence of its terroir - you only have to compare the refined elegance of du
Tertre with the more substantial weight and structure of Giscours, under
the same ownership, to see this effect at work.
Pessac-Léognan
A big smile on the face of Prince Robert de Luxembourg when he showed
us his Haut Brion 2005 tells the story. And if we rightly fell in love
with the 2004 Haut Bailly, how much more glorious is the 2005 - exactly
the same impeccable rendition of terroir but in an entirely different register
of structure and concentration. And then Domaine de Chevalier….Certainly
a brilliant vintage for this region, with powerful concentrated white wines as
well as exceptional reds.
The Right Bank
2005 is an outstanding year for the Right Bank but perhaps fractionally less consistent overall. The Merlot ripened well and early, but it was important not to allow the ripeness to become exaggerated. For many producers the Cabernet Franc was outstanding too but there were a few reported troubles with drought in relation to this more obstinate grape. Talking of obstinate, there are still a few too many producers playing the over-extraction card, especially in St Emilion.
Pomerol
We might have feared the effect of drought on the free-draining gravel plateau
of Pomerol, but we could not see any evidence in the wines. La
Conseillante was humbling, neighbouring Evangile equally sublime
while Vieux Château Certan has produced an extraordinary wine, albeit
almost entirely Merlot for once. Christian Moueix's wines have benefited
from his predilection for harvesting earlier rather than later, and using a
soft pedal in the vats.
St
Emilion
This commune still boasts too many producers in the over-extracting account but
we are not obliged to buy these wines and indeed have not. The great names -
Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, have produced
extraordinarily fine wines with Ausone surely a great contender for the wine of
the vintage. Here is an example of a wine with the most brilliant natural
concentration secured by the work in the vineyard, aided by skilled winemaking
without any suggestion of artificial maquillage. Berliquet and
Moulin St Georges look like smart tips at a more affordable price
level.
Sauternes
The fine series of Sauternes vintages over the past ten years continues with an outstanding vintage in 2005, not dissimilar in style, and not far behind in quality, from the unmatchable 2001s. A great Sauternes vintage means heat and sunshine to ripen the grapes and keep them free of grey rot, balanced by occasional showers along with foggy mornings to promote the noble rot. All this they had in 2005 to produce a bevy of fine, aromatic, well-balanced, long-lived sweet wines.
 
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