Taste it Again / Lost & Found
Taste it Again: 2005 Cabs from the Chateau
21 Sep 2014- Details
- Category: Lost & Found / Taste it Again
Read the original reviews from August 2007
Cabernet Sauvigon ... Cabernet Franc
(Re-Tasted August 3, 2014) ... Here we have two Cabs from Chateau des Charmes, one a Franc the other a Sauvignon, both from the same vineyard (St. David's Bench) and both from the hot 2005 vintage ... This should be one heck of an interesting tasting.
Kicked things off with the Franc, at nine years old I expect to get some smoky and tobacco flavours and aromas ... But at first the wine was exceptionally closed and shy, it gave nothing away as to what I might taste. Over the course of a couple of hours the aromas and flavours opened up to reveal something rather simplistic: smoky, dried raspberry and tobacco, but this did not stick around long as the palate soon turned to cigarette ash and ended on a very smoky note that seemed to linger almost to the point of being unpleasant.
The same could not be said for the Cabernet Sauvignon, which proved to be the real winner here. The aromas came roaring out of the bottle almost the moment it was popped, but certainly as it was poured you could smell something inviting coming from the glass: aromas of coffee and dried blackberry with hints of anise filled the olfactories ... Flavours vanquished the tongue, pummeling it into submission with mocha spiced-blackberries, tannins were still present and added depth of flavour along with hints of smoke. This was a really lovely, aged and stunningly good Cabernet Sauvignon from the folks at the Charmes, and what made it even more exciting was the linger on the finish of spice and oak with just a smear of dried fruit.
