Record-breaking Bordeaux 05 Decanter tasting May 9, 2008
Adam Lechmere
Decanter's first tasting of the newly-bottled 2005 Medocs produced a record-breaking 25 awards - only two of them First Growths.
Of the 25 five-star awards only Margaux and Mouton-Rothschild represent the very top rank. Haut-Brion (Pessac-Leognan) was not tasted.
Other winners in the five-star category spanned the 1855 classification, including Calon Segur (3rd growth), Duhart-Milon (4th) and Haut-Bages-Liberal (5th).
Chateaux Latour and Lafite-Rothschild were awarded 4- and 3-stars (Highly Recommended and Recommended) respectively.
All wines were tasted blind, by a panel including consultant editor Steven Spurrier, the Wine Society's Sebastian Payne MW, Stephen Browett of Farr Vintners, Richard Bampfield MW, Hugo Rose MW and other elite tasters.
Fifth growth Chateau Pedesclaux gets five stars, as do such eminent properties as Brane-Cantenac, Pichon Longueville and Rauzan-Segla.
Following a leak of the tasting results, Pedesclaux has been the subject of fevered speculation on both internet message boards and merchants' order lists. The wine was one of three (along with Mouton and Pichon) to garner an automatic 5-star award (averaging a score of over 18.5/20 from all tasters) without the need for re-tasting.
There is almost £1000 difference in the price tags between the top ranking wines. Pedesclaux is retailing for £20-30 per bottle, for example – while Chateau Margaux weighs in at up to £903.
When the wines were revealed the panel expressed amazement that so many lowly 4th and 5th growths could have trumped their more illustrious counterparts.
The main reason, Payne said, was the overall excellence of the vintage, with beautifully balanced wines at every level. 'It really is exceptional – and very exciting.'
As well as this, the panel stressed that the wines develop at a different rate. Browett said, 'If you're honest, Forts de Latour, when it is young, is better than Latour. Wines that have an early drinking date show better than wines that are there for the long term.'
Decanter editor Guy Woodward added: 'We always knew this was an exceptional vintage, but the top wines are priced beyond the means of most of us. With over a dozen 5-star wines available at under £40 a bottle, there are actually some stunning bargains for savvy wine lovers.'
The full results of the 2005 Medoc crus classes tasting will appear in Decanter's July issue, on sale June 4.
Have your say... To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field
It is very interesting to see how a wine can be viewed so differently by two major authorities in the wine critic establishment. Parker rated Chateau Pedesclaux 2005 '82' and provided such harsh comments ("this offering stands out like a sore thumb in a great vintage") making it difficult to believe that Decanter's panel could rank this wine as one of the star of the vintage!
I can understand a variation of some points between critics, but here we are talking about a landslide and the difference can not only be driven by a difference of palate...
As a naive and young wine lover, this discrepancy is teaching me an interesting lesson... rely only on my taste, therefore attend as many tasting as possible!
David R, London, UK
I am sure you are right to detect in Parker's comparatively modest scores for at least some of the first growths in 2005 a certain politics - perhaps even, as some have suggested, a pre-retirement attempt to push the market trend in a rather different direction? But the opportunity arises in the first place from the grade inflation that has undoubtedly occurred in Parker's scores in recent vintages - if 15 wines were to achieve 100 points this would no longer look like a very discriminating assessment of the vintage. In a way, stuck with his ostensibly 'objective' scoring system, Parker is simply lost for numerical superlatives. Yet, it is no less interesting that in Decanter's own retasting of the vintage, only 2 of the first growths achieve 5* status - with Lafite and Latour (each 96 points from Parker) receiving 3 and 4* respectively. Might one detect a certain consensus emerging? And whilst I don't imagine any takers for my offer of a case of Pedesclaux '05 (82 points from Parker, 5* from Decanter) for one of Latour '05 (some chance!), it would appear as though, at this stage in their evolution, Pauillac has produced a deeply impressive and consistent set of 2005s at all points in the classification.
Professor Colin Hay, University of Sheffield, UK
I would like to expand further on the point of how a supposedly identical wine can receive such diverse comments from experienced critics. It is easy to understand a difference in point allocation as simple subjectivity, (due to differences in percieved 'base' references for example). It is also easy to understand different perceptions of wine 'style' - especially when trying to ascertain aging potential. However, it is far more difficult to comprehend how a simple 'good', 'bad' or 'indifferent' tag can be mis-applied, which is in effect what has happened with the 2005 Pedesclaux.
The Decanter blind tasting appears to have allocated this wine 'star' status, which in simple terms definitely merits a 'good' rating. Robert Parker, however, (a significant luminary in all things vinous!), is somewhat less than enthusiastic, rating the Pedesclaux 2005 a candidate for the worst classed growth of the vintage! Assuming that Mr Parker would recognise an 'off' bottle, this definitely places the wine in the 'bad' camp.
So would the recorded comments have differed if all concerned parties were present at the same tasting? Did they in fact all sample the same wine, and which one will we find in our unopened cases - the good, the bad, or the ugly!
Tom F, Liverpool, UK
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It is very interesting to see how a wine can be viewed so differently by two major authorities in the wine critic establishment. Parker rated Chateau Pedesclaux 2005 '82' and provided such harsh comments ("this offering stands out like a sore thumb in a great vintage") making it difficult to believe that Decanter's panel could rank this wine as one of the star of the vintage!
