Bordeaux 2005 at Four Years: St Emilion & Pomerol
As with the wines of Pessac-Léognan and the Médoc there was broad success here. With St Emilion it was Cheval Blanc that reined supreme, Figeac being a no-show, having sent the rather delicious 2000 vintage instead, a green peppercorn and dark, brooding, gravelly-fruit infusion which seemed to have more in common stylistically with the wines of Pessac, particularly La Mission and Haut-Brion than it did with its St Emilion peers. That must be terroir talking, I suppose! The closest in terms of quality after Pierre-Lurton’s wine were Angélus and then Bellevue. Pavie-Macquin and Larcis Ducasse also showed very well, and although still very rich in thick, drying tannin I am finding that the longer these heavily extracted styles rest in bottle the more approachable I find them to be, and thus the more I enjoy them. Certainly in this vintage they seemed to have softened from the initial tastes in April 2006 and then at two years of age at the annual UGC tasting in October 2007. I seem to have warmed to 2005 Larcis Ducasse gradually over these three tastings, whereas my feelings towards Pavie-Macquin have shifted more suddenly; the most recent tasting still seemed over-extracted, whereas today it seemed much more balanced and composed, with a remarkably higher score as a result.
As for Pomerol, few wines would compete with Petrus which was on show here, brought over by Olivier Berrouet (who has replaced his father Jean-Claude Berrouet as oenologist at Petrus) and Jean-François Moueix of Groupe Duclot, who administers the Petrus estate and who also has sole distribution rights within France. Gazin, Clinet, Providence and Trotanoy all showed well, perhaps the only disappointment being a rather muted performance from La Conseillante, which seemed strangely smoky and loose-knit.
