"Bordeaux's 2005 vintage is going to be a record-breaker on every level. Extraordinary wines are everywhere. Demand is unprecedented. Prices are expected to be astronomical." James Suckling, Wine Spectator
The Vintage
The most significant characteristic of the 2005 vintage was the extremely low rainfall throughout the growing season and harvest. Rainfall from January through to the end of September was little over half the norm for all the major areas of Bordeaux. This drought was a factor at all the major stages of the vine's growth cycle, from a cold, dry winter, a mild spring, perfect flowering conditions in early June, a sunny ripening season and a dry harvest - just about a vigneron's dream conditions.
Importantly, temperatures were not excessive during ripening. Therefore, although the vines had to work hard to draw nutrients from the relatively dry soil (which produces more concentrated musts), they were not overstressed by heat. This slow, steady ripening allowed the grapes to achieve very high levels of concentration and potential alcohol while acidity, tannin and phenolics remained in balance.
Despite the perfect conditions for flowering and veraison (fruit set) in June and July, the water stress on the vines generally reduced yields to below their 2004 levels.
Médoc
We teach our trainee managers that the process of blending Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot in the Médoc has developed at least in part as an insurance policy against difficulties with the later ripening Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. In great vintages such as 2005 this is not necessary and with hugely succesful Cabernet crops, many blends on the left-bank are particularly Cabernet dominated this year.
Thanks to the favourable ripening, the wines are extremely pure and concentrated, with almost no green flavours or harsh tannins present at any level. All the successful wines balance the particularly ripe fruit characteristics of the vintage with higher than usual levels of tannin, acidity and alcohol. The ripeness and finesse of tannins is particularly notable.
There is a fairly uniform degree of success across the communes of the Médoc, and thanks to their very clean, pure styles the different terroirs are very clearly defined. The first growths in particular displayed all of their individual trademark nuances.
Generally speaking the Margaux performed well, the best wines being silky and elegant. We found rich pickings among the leading St-Juliens and Pauillacs, which displayed a remarkable clarity of fruit and great structure. St-Estèphe was arguably less universally successful, but with Cos d'Estournel and Calon-Ségur on form, and other good value wines also delivering, there's still a good spread of excellent 2005s on offer.
Where we were particularly selective was among the Médocs, Haut-Médocs, Moulis and Listracs where, although the quality of the vintage was apparent, really successful wines were less common. We're confident that we have picked the very best for our 2005 offer.
Graves and Pessac-Léognan
As usual, the Haut-Brion family of wines are top of the tree in the Graves. Among the other properties the quality was extremely consistent if infuriatingly rarely exciting - there really wasn't much to choose between most of them, and our range this year reflects this.
Truly notable though was the quality of 2005 whites - more intense and powerful than the excellent 2004 vintage, the very top wines are sublime.
St-Emilion and Pomerol
If Cabernet succeeded in it's natural territory of the Médoc there's no doubting the success of Merlot on the right bank. We will offer our broadest ever range of St-Emilions and Pomerols in 2005, such was the generally very high quality. In particular, we were pleased to note the absence of green flavours, and to see that few of the wines have been as over-extracted as has been our observation in recent vintages. With fruit as ripe and naturally expressive as in 2005 few winemakers have felt the need to work the wines too hard.
In St-Emilion we found plenty of lush, plummy fruited wines, and a good balance of styles from restrained, feminine wines such as Figeac and Canon-La-Gaffelière to powerful, long-lived wines such as Pavie and Ausone. Pomerol was particularly pleasant, with many wines showing delicious balance, and attractive floral perfumes.
Sauternes and Barsac
The extremely dry conditions of the 2005 vintage were also well received in Sauternes. The dry, warm conditions around the harvest allowed a good spread of botrytis, and the châteaux were able to leave the fruit hanging for plenty of time to allow the musts to concentrate.
The wines in 2005 are somewhat fresher in style than we had expected, and although possessing great sweetness they seem remarkably approachable now. In the wines we've selected there's a good spicy, marmalade-like complexity from botrytis.
The Market
There is no getting away from the fact that in a universally acknowledged vintage such as 2005 prices were always going to rise; the question is by how much. As well as slightly reduced yields, there has been huge demand for 2005, in particular from re-awakened interest in the US and Japan, with emerging markets in the former Soviet Union and China also increasing the upward pressure on prices.
However, there was pressure on châteaux to exercise restraint, not least from the downtrodden bulk producers of Bordeaux, who are perversely seeing prices for generic AC Bordeaux plummet to all-time lows. 2005 saw the widest gap between the top and bottom echelons of Bordeaux yet seen.
Whilst we cannot dispute the extremely high general standard of the 2005s, we have only purchased wines whose intrinsic quality justifies their price. Customers purchasing these wines can purchase and cellar these exceptional wines with confidence.