Sunday, May 20, 2007

Vintage 2005

After returning from the chilly burgundy, I was immediately immersed in organizing several back-to-back wine events for the visiting Mr. Don Weaver, the director of Harlan Estate, and thereafter two famous third-growth Bordeaux Châteaus key-persons, Mr. Emmanuel Cruse of Château d’Issan and Mr. Marcel Ducasse of Château Lagrange. It was all worth it as these people are such great fun to hang out with.

My pre-tasting of 2002 Harlan Estate – scheduled for release next spring – showed great promise. Although I don’t think it was close to the 2001, it was still a delicious wine that offers wonderful sweet-currant fruits in addition to Harlan’s hallmark finesse and elegance.

In spite of the age difference, Cruse and Ducasse compliment each other very well. Cruse is more relaxed and humorous, whereas Ducasse tends to be more serious and detailed. But when both of them are together, you could immediately see an interesting chemistry between the two. My time spent with them was both entertaining and informative. Cruse and Ducasse gave me an early preview of 2005 Bordeaux, which they considered to be an exceptional year. The rare combination cool nights and warm days in a dry growing season has produced grapes so perfectly ripened as never seen before. Some early predictions have gone as far as proclaiming this vintage to be qualitatively comparable to the legendary 1961. Hmmm…I will have full report on my en primeur tasting by next year April 2006.

In the upcoming issues, I will progressively share with you my report of my recent burgundy trip. Since this report will span over more than 20 pages, it is only sensible for me to split them into different parts. Before I commend to you the first part of my report, allow me to say a few words regarding the 2004 and 2005 Burgundy vintages.

2004 white burgundy features sound acidity due to the high presence of malic acid, which also explains why the malolactic-fermentation lasted quite long. After the malo, the wines have largely put on weight – not that they were either green or lean to begin with. The finest examples demonstrate a good level of richness combined with exceptional purity, clarity, vibrancy and details. Personally, I consider it an edge better than the 2000 & 2001 white burgundies, although it is clear that the wine is less profound than nor as attractive as the 2002 whites at the same stage of development. However it is a clearly more classical vintage when compared to the more freakish 2003.

2004 red burgundy is a delightful vintage that features plenty of red fruits in a profound and delicate style which has more in common with the 2000 reds. Although there were some issues with hail –which caused some grapes to inherit the taste of rot – most top-notch producers managed to keep this problem under control, and hence most wines that I have tasted were actually pristine and clean. It also features better details, clarity and freshness when compared to the 2003s. Personally, I would place this vintage qualitatively somewhere between the 2001 & 2000. It has less mid-palate intensity of 2001, but clearly displays more texture and denser fruits than 2000. There were also some 2004s which I thought excelled in quality in comparison to the 2002 counterparts.

2005 is clearly the best of all 2000s as anyone who engages in deeper conversations with the vignerons would be able to sense. It featured a similar dry growing season like 2003, but with less freakish heat, and none of the sunburned grapes issues which plagued many 2003s. Although there is a similar lack of malic acid in this vintage, the tartaric acid levels in 2005 reds were very healthy. This is in contrast to the 2003s where there was hardly any natural acid left to conduct any malolactic fermentation. During my visit last month, many domaine reds have yet started their malo. When I asked one of my most respected winemakers, Benjamin Leroux, to comment on this vintage, he simply said that it was an unprecedented vintage – it carries higher alcohol than 2003, yet the same high level of natural acidity as 1996. The combination of cool nights and warm days made the results of this exceptional vintage. Needless to say, he is very optimistic and excited about 2005 burgundy.

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