Château Haut-Brion
2005
Château Haut-Brion (2005)
- Winery:
- Chateau Haut Brion More from this winery Are we missing a vintage?
- Region:
- France » Bordeaux » Graves » Pessac-Léognan
- Varietal:
- Merlot
- Type:
- Red Wine
Winemakers Notes
Very perfumed nose of red and black fruits, almost exotic. Gorgeous texture onthe palate fills the mouth, sumptuous. Great intensity, abundant but ripetannins, very long. Magnificent.
(Alun Griffiths MW, BBR Wine Director - Mar 09)
Reviews for 2005 Vintage
Robert Parker 98 Points
Another profound effort from Haut-Brion, the 2005 (a 9,000-case blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc) has bulked up to the point that it is fair to compare it to the great successes of 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2000. A dark ruby/purple color is followed by a nuanced, noble bouquet of blue and red fruits interwoven with wet stones, unsmoked cigar tobacco, scorched earth, and spring flowers. The wine is full-bodied, pure, and complex as well as exceptionally elegant with laser-like precision. The tannins are still serious and substantial, and in that sense, this is a completely different style of Haut-Brion than the opulent, silky-textured 1989 and 1990. As I have written before, it comes across as an improved, more concentrated and structured version of the 1995 or 1998. Patience will be required for this stunner. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2040+
Wine Spectator 100 Points
This is incredible on the nose, showing coffee cake, blackberry, floral, coffee bean and vanilla bean, with Chinese spices. A very complex, full-bodied red, with seamless, hyperpolished tannins that caress every millimeter of the palate. Lasts for minutes. So beautifully balanced, I'm left speechless. Is it even better than the 1989? Best after 2017. 9,080 cases made.-JS
International Wine Cellar 97 Points
Bright ruby-red. Wonderfully expressive nose combines black raspberry, mocha, hot stones, caramel and tobacco. Lush, fat and full read more...
This is incredible on the nose, showing coffee cake, blackberry, floral, coffee bean and vanilla bean, with Chinese spices. A very complex, full-bodied red, with seamless, hyperpolished tannins that caress every millimeter of the palate. Lasts for minutes. So beautifully balanced, Irsquo;m left speechless. Is it even better than the 1989? Best after 2017.
Another profound effort from Haut-Brion, the 2005 (a 9,000-case blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc) has bulked up to the point that it is fair to compare it to the great successes of 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2000. A dark ruby/purple color is followed by a nuanced, noble bouquet of blue and red fruits interwoven with wet stones, unsmoked cigar tobacco, scorched earth, and spring flowers. The wine is full-bodied, pure, and complex as well as exceptionally elegant with laser-like precision. The tannins are still serious and substantial, and in that sense, this is a completely different style of Haut-Brion than the opulent, silky-textured 1989 and 1990. As I have written before, it comes across as an improved, more concentrated and structured version of the 1995 or 1998. Patience will be required for this stunner. Anticipated maturity: 2017ndash;2040+
Old, aristocratic Bordeaux. This is difficult to consider as a young wine, entangled as it is in oak, the flavors buxom yet guarded. Compressed underneath the substantial weight there's a sophisticated, expressive Graves, a view into the stones of the soil as polished as the red fruits that form the core of flavor. Within that core, the wine holds all its freshness and power as if in reserve for the decades to come. On the outside, there's the oak, which only seems to grow more dominant with air, the fruit persisting as an undercurrant. This will need a decade of age to show itself more fully, and will likely continue to evolve for several decades more.
A pure evocation of Graves, Haut-Brion's '98 is all potential energy, a powerful layering of minerals, gravel, plum skin, grape skin, red fruit and game, all compressed within unrelenting tannins. You can see the intensity in the dense black-purple color, and you can taste it in the tremendous red fruit length. for all its power, it remains one of the most elegant wines of Bordeaux. There's no bow to fashion, to international style. Jean-Bernard Delmas looks deep into the vineyard to create this wine and fashions it to develop for 20 years or more.
Haut-Brion leads off at the top of the vintage: A sensational color, a glamorous aroma, a huge wine in the mouth. Its so luscious at its core, then so firmly structured that the finish is jarring. This wine shows all the breed you would expect, then it seems to dry up in the end. The tannins are like chewing on nails - not a bad thing for a young Bordeaux of this stature. But I searched for some indication of freshness in the finish, a quality that lends me comfort when a wine needs as much cellaring as this '95. And I came up with dry rocks rather than traces of fresh fruit. It's built for the long term, and if you trust the center of the wine it should make it.
The 2000 Haut-Brion (a blend of 51% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc) showed incredibly at the tasting, and for me is one of the three or four most prodigious wines of the vintage. A compelling nose of roasted herbs, scorched earth, sweet blueberries, plums, black currants, and a hint of graphite is followed by a deep, layered, sumptuously textured, full-bodied Haut-Brion, but one with extraordinary complexity. This wine seems more evolved and approachable than I had expected it to be at age 10. My window of maturity seven years ago was 2012-2040, but I would change that to 2010-2050.
Availability
- Price:DescendingAscending
- Featured:Ascending
- Store Name:DescendingAscending
- Bottle Size:DescendingAscending
- Proximity:Ascending
Sort by:
2005
No minimum order. 10% discount on full case purchases (12x750ml) - some exclusions apply. Shipping &
2005
2005
User Tags
Similar Wines
-
Château Haut Brion 1995
Snoothrank:
Starting at $374.00 -
Chateau Petrus Pomerol 1983
Snoothrank:
Starting at $999.95 -
Chateau la Conseillante Bordeaux Pomerol 1998
Snoothrank:
Starting at $579.50 -
Bahans Haut Brion 1982
Snoothrank:
Starting at $593.75
Other Vintages
-
Chateau Haut Brion V Chateau Haut Brion V 1994
Starting at $281.29
Click to sign up or Log in
