Wine Opinion | Bordeaux 2005: how 'vintage of the century' drinks at 10 years old
Gems from Medoc's left bank, some ready for uncorking, and the pick of the 'big four' appellations
We’ve spent so much of the past five years extolling the virtues of the 2009 and 2010 vintages in Bordeaux that the previous “vintage of the century” has been languishing a little in the corner, hidden in the shade of those two more recent blockbusters.
But this all changed at the start of 2015, when the secondary market – which means the buying and reselling of bottles a few years down the line – woke up to the possibilities of 2005 and values started rising.
Why? Because 2005 has reached that magic 10-year birthday, the traditional time for good-quality Bordeaux to start being uncorked and drunk, or put back in the cellar after having confirmed its prowess in ageing potential. And the 2005 has that in spades. The Liv-ex 500, a fine wine index that tracks these things, moved upwards in January 2015 after a flurry of purchases for key 2005 wines. Four of the five top movers were from 2005, with La Mission Haut-Brion rising 20.7 per cent, Mouton Rothschild 12.8 per cent, Latour 7.9 per cent and Haut-Brion 7.4 per cent.
If you bought the wines en primeur, you would have seen an average rise in values of 59 per cent.
This sense of momentum, with the long-simmering excitement over the quality of the vintage, meant that the recent Ten Years On tasting held by wine merchant Bordeaux Index in London at the end of January was well attended by journalists and collectors. Key wines from both banks were laid out, but I focused on the Medoc 1855 classified wines, which I was tasting blind for Decanter magazine.
