2005 White Bordeaux

Back in the stone age one of my epiphany wines, wines that were an awakening for me, was a 375ml bottle of 1970 Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc.  Originally a Graves, the wine now carries the Pessac Leognan appellation.  Completely remarkable wine that was about ten years old and yet was alive, fresh and so very much appealing. Over the years there have been other vintages of this wine that I have loved almost as much as the 1970. 

Let's not mince any words here - the 2005 vintage is not very good and was a major disappointment for me.  When the cork came out of the bottle the only aroma was that of oak.  It took a minute or two of swirling before any fruit flavors came out of the glass, and those flavors were predominantly of figs.  Even the figs weren't enough to overcome a heavy taste of oak that ran from the first sip through the finish. 

To be fair, the person I shared the bottle with loves oak in wine and he thought this bottle was very good, though he too felt by the end the wine was tired.

I failed to find any charm in the wine and my happiest thought with this wine was the knowledge that because of the high price I only bought one bottle. Sadly, this means I will likely never know if this was a bad bottle or a bottle representative of this vintage.

$52 and 13.5% alcohol.