You Can Taste It
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Columns - The Wall Street Princess
Could this be the greatest vintage ever?  The hype on 2005 French wines have reached, well, hyper-drive. Time to call in the tasters!
France's much anticipated 2005 vintage is arriving in wine stores, and critics are grasping for superlatives. Influential reviewer Robert Parker writes of the 2005 Bordeaux, "This is the greatest vintage produced during my 30-year career." Allen Meadows, the critic known as Burghound, says of Burgundy wines, "2005 is quite simply the best top-to-bottom vintage that I have ever seen, period, full stop." And it's not just one or two regions that are exciting wine lovers. The 2005 vintage is also excellent in the Rhône, Italy, Spain, Germany, California, Washington, Southern Australia, Argentina and Chile.The combination of critical acclaim, soaring demand and the weak dollar has driven prices for wines from France's big three regions- Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône- to new records. First-growth 2005 Bordeaux are selling for $1,200 and up- per bottle. One bottle of 2005 Domaine Romanée-Conti from Burgandy recently sold at auction for $14,000. Reasonable prices for Russian oligarchs, hedge fund billionaires and oil sheiks- but what about the rest of us?!
The Princess Penna, Inc (PPI) wine panel convened to find out. We met to answer three pressing questions: Does the 2005 vintage live up to the extraordinary hype? Is it so terrific that even lesser wines are good buys? And which region produced the best wines and the best values?
To find out, we chose four wines from each of the big three regions. We included one expensive example ($300-plus a bottle, retail) and three more-reasonable alternatives. We purchased the Burgundies and the Rhônes at Burgundy Wine Co., and the Bordeaux from Sherry-Lehmann and Crush Wines, all of which sell online. The panel convened at Restaurant Marseille, a bistro in Manhattan's theater district, where wine director Jonathan Charney served the wines blind, divided by region. We worked through all 12 wines, then re-tasted them after they'd had time to breathe- and delivered our judgments.
It didnt't take many sips to conclude that 2005 is indeed an extraordinary vintage in Burgundy. All four wines were a beautiful deep red and had intense and many-layered bouquets. Beyond that, they offered a delightful variety of tastes and styles. No. 1 was "masculine," which a deep flavor and plenty of tannins; No. 2 was more delicate, with a classic cherry bouquet. But No. 4 left us at a loss for adjectives. It got better and better in the glass. It had marvelous balance, layers of flavor, a soft, velvety mouth-feel, and a lingering finish. "This wine has everything," said one panelist. As his last sip disappeared, another added, "I don't want it to end!" On second tasting, it was even better. "Could it be inexpensive? Only in a fairy tale." The verdict: No. 4 by acclamation- but we'd be proud to serve any of them at a dinner party.
On to the Rhônes, whose bold, spicy flavors proved an excellent match to Marseille's Mediterranean cuisine. Here, too, contrasts abounded, with wines running from the brawny and boisterous to the very civilized. No. 7 drew exclamations for its "perfect Syrah nose" and its notes of tobacco and leather. But it couldn't match the impressive left by No. 8. Though its initial bouquet put off some with its "barnyard" aromas- which quickly dissipated- its "amazing complexity" and "velvety tannins" won us over. It had both commanding presence and tremendous finesse. No consensus here, though, among the panelists. The majority rated No. 8 at the top, though one panelist ranked it last, preferring No. 7, which won more votes on second tasting. But like the Burgundies, all the Rhônes were fascinating wines that promised to repay further drinking.
Finally, we came to the Bordeaux, expecting we had saved the best for last. Wine No. 9 was enjoyable but ordinary; No. 11 mustered yawns, "the kind of thing they serve on Air France." It was a bad sign that no one wanted to re-taste it- or No. 12, for that matter. The only standout? No. 10 was powerful, with hints of vanilla in the bouquet and a lot of tannins; it was "rambunctious" but smoothed out with time in the glass. Still, as a group the Bordeaux left us deflated. True, we had samples of only four bottles, but was this really the vintage of a lifetime?
We arrived at our verdict: Regionally, we liked the Burgundies, the Rhônes and the Bordeaux, in that order. Bottle No. 4, the last of the Burgundies, was our best of the tasting. Now it was time to see what we had chosen.
Our Bordeaux picks turned up the biggest surprise and the best value. Wine No. 10, our winner, was the Château Ste. Colombe, a Côtes de Castillion that cost only $14.95. And last place went to No. 12, Château Cos d'Estournel- which clocked in at $295.00. Critic Parker gave this wine a remarkable 98 score, but we utterly failed to discern what he called a "layered mid-palate that builds like a skyscraper." Our word? "Boring."
With the Rhônes, quality and price aligned more closely. Our favorite, No. 8, was an Hermitage from J.L. Chave, who makes wine in an ultra-traditional way meant for long-term aging. It sells for $325.00. But close runner-up No. 7 was a more humble Crozes-Hermitage, for $29.50.
Alas, among the Burgundies, the wine we'd fallen in love with- our best of tasting, No. 4- was indeed expensive. It was a premier cru Chambolle-Musigny "Les Amoureuses" from producer Mugnier. We paid $350.00, but our supplier has sold out, and when we checked elsewhere, the same wine was being offered for $1,400. Still, we perked up when we discovered that the three excellent runners-up, including a delicious Côte de Nuits Villages (bottle No. 1), ranged in price from $25.00 to $34.00.Overall, we found some excellent wines at moderate prices, but we urge buyers to beware of the hype- 2005 isn't a vintage that you can buy blindly, especially in Bordeaux. The top wines may indeed be outstanding, but are they worth the price? Perhaps not, when close contenders like the Côte de Nuits and Crozes-Hermitage sell for one-tenth the price.
Vintage Victorious
After much rigorous sniffing and swilling, the results are in. (Hint: The Burgundies ruled.)Â Numbers correspond to those in the text.
BEST IN SHOW
4 CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY PREMIÈRE "LES AMOUREUSES," MUGNIER (BURGUNDY, $350)
BEST VALUE
10Â STE. COLOMBE (BORDEAUX, $14.95)
SERVE THESE PROUDLY
1 CÔTE DE NUITS VILLAGES, "ROBIGNOTTE," JOURDAN (BURGUNDY, $34)
2Â CHOREY-LES-BEAUNE "CLOS MARGOT," DUBOIS (BURGUNDY, $25)
7 CROZES-HERMITAGE, COMBIER (RHÔNE, $29.50)
NOT WORTH THE (BOR)DOUGH
12Â COS D'ESTOURNEL (BORDEAUX, $295)
(PPI says "thanks!" to Robert Parker and Allen Meadows)
Tags: wine tasting 2005 French wines CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY PREMIÈRE "LES AMOUREUSES " MUGNIER STE. COLOMBE CÔTE DE NUITS VILLAGES "ROBIGNOTTE " JOURDAN CHOREY-LES-BEAUNE "CLOS MARGOT " DUBOIS CROZES-HERMITAGE COMBIER COS D'ESTOURNEL
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