Château Haut-Bages Libéral 2005

The 2005 vintage in Pauillac

Vintage benchmark: 97/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Drought without any halt in ripening, together with cool nights, gave a legendary vintage: concentrated, with firm tannins and very long aging potential.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pauillac. 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

The color is very dark. The nose expresses delicate aromas of red and black berries with mineral and minted hints. On the palate, the wine is powerful, structured and elegant; with some freshness. The final is long and pure and reveals vintage with a nice balance.

The vintage

The winter was cold and dry what did not encouraged the development of diseases. In contrast, the lack of rainfall foreshadowed a water deficit in Summer.

Budbursting and flowering were quick and homogeneous. The Summer was particularly hot and it rained two times less than normal. The growth was steady and early in a very healthy vineyard.

These excellent ripening conditions fostered a high concentration of sugar and phenolic compounds. Despite an early water deficit, the vine was able to extract from the soil of deep gravels the water for its growth.

Blend of the 2005 vintage

Figures from the 2005 sheet

• 35 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Traditional in stainless and concrete vats, whose volumes are proportional to the plots. Fermentation on skins: 18 to 24 days.

Ageing

In oak barrels during 16 months. 40% of new oak.

Terroir

The vineyard covers 30 hectares, half of which are located around the property, adjoining Château Latour. The other part of the vineyard is on the Bages plateau, in the south of Pauillac. The estate's plots are located in 2 areas, one made up of deep gravels and the other of clay-limestone and chalky limestone. This type of soil gives the wine its power and its mineral character. A large part of its fine deep-gravel land overlooks the Gironde estuary. These gravels were carried down by the river from the Pyrenees during the Quaternary era. They rest on a limestone bedrock.