Château Gazin 2005

The 2005 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 98/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A drought that never stalled ripening gave opulent, perfectly structured merlots: a legendary vintage.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

This is a great vintage, offering a solid structure that will let this wine age for 30 years and more. Its color is an intense Bordeaux-red, almost black. On the palate, it offers notes of black and red fruit: blackberry, morello cherry, blackcurrant, redcurrant, joined by touches of liquorice, plum and spice. The oak from barrel ageing is melded and discreet. One already finds in this wine aromas of truffle, leather, undergrowth and meaty notes, typical of Pomerol. The wine is sumptuous, long and broad on the palate, with melded, supple tannins, though still well present on the finish, until they reach full maturity after 10 to 15 years of ageing. A vintage to keep for now.

Blend of the 2005 vintage

Figures from the 2005 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 35 yrsVine age
• 100,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Alcoholic fermentations take place in small concrete vats, variety by variety and plot by plot, followed by a period of maceration of the juice with the skins, for two to three weeks.

Ageing

In barrel for 18 months (50% renewed each year)

Terroir

The vineyard of Château Gazin covers an area of 26 ha in a single block, situated on the high terrace of the Pomerol terroir. The terroir of Château Gazin is made up of Günzian gravels at the surface and, in the subsoil, blue and green clays containing iron oxides (crasse de fer). These clays (smectites) provide the vine with a regular and moderate supply of water, a characteristic of the great terroirs. The clay-gravel subsoil of the Pomerol plateau makes up the essential part of Château Gazin’s terroir. The vineyard is planted with 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc. The average age of the vines is 35 years.