First 2005 Bordeaux Experience

Over the last break from school I decided to try a 2005 Bordeaux so I could finally enter the conversation in some small way. If you haven’t been nerding out about wine lately you might not know what I’m talking about, so I’ll explain. The 2005 vintage in Bordeaux, France has been heralded as “one of the most singular years of the past five decades”. (Robert Parker) Be careful reading this statement because it may trick you into thinking that these wines are delicious and smooth, but you would most likely be wrong. What is great about this vintage is that the wines are very structured and tannic meaning some have the potential to last for 50+ years, but in the short run they are almost undrinkable.

I was able to try the 2005 Chateau Gamage Bordeaux Superior and it took me three days to finish the bottle and I feel like I learned a lot watching it evolve over time. On day one, with only a few hours of breathing, the wine was so tannic that it just dried out my mouth and hardly seemed like wine. I sat down with a plate of various cheeses and fruits etc and just tried all the pairings I could think of to see what flavors I could pull out of the tannic monster. I eventually came up with a list: black raspberry, mocha, mushroom, lettuce, carrots, and tomato. It was a pretty good level of complexity but the flavors were very subtle and I had to do a lot of work to taste them, so I left the bottle out overnight. The next day the tannins were a smidge less intense and a few flavors were beginning to show up stronger: pepper, lettuce, and the purple color of the “Now and Later” candy. On the third day the only change was again a lessening of the tannins and a more pronounced Now and Later candy flavor and smell.

From the experience I’m pretty sure I learned what it means to say that a wine is so young it’s undrinkable and it made me think a little more about food pairings with wine. I’m not a fan of the mushroom flavors found in wine or cheese and so with this wine I really tried to avoid the specific pairings that turned a sip of wine to mushroom soup in my mouth. Finally, I mentioned the purple candy flavor showing itself over time and I think I feel safe in saying that had this wine spent a good 15 years in my basement, that might easily be it’s dominant flavor (along with mushrooms). So I probably wouldn’t have liked this wine too much had it been ready to drink, but at this stage it was a good education.