I bought 3 bottles of this when it was released. The first was opened shortly after arrival, it was really nice, but young, and with the great fresh acidity that for me is one of the hallmark's of Eric's wines, I thought it had the potential to age into something nice.
I remember opening another bottle at my birthday party back in 2011, BJ and Mdm L were there that night IIRC. It was completely closed that evening at age 6, showing mostly structure (lots of acid, the tannins in the 05 were always pretty ripe but still prominent as a backbone). There were lots of other wines to try that night, and I don't remember revisiting this one after the first glass.
Yesterday out here was another in a string of gorgeous sunny days, mid 60s, a light breeze blowing. I had the day off and worked putting in my vegetable garden. My wife called from work and said she was stopping at the butcher on the way home picking up steaks, and asked what about a fire to grill them. We have a small fire pit in our backyard, but didn't use it much last year due to a drought and burn bans. So the first fire of the season, a celebration for us! After getting this started, I went into the cellar looking for something good, maybe a bottle of Syrah, which I love with smoky grilled meat. I saw the neck label that Eric uses on his bottles, the little white leaf on the black capsule and thought I was grabbing an '06 Pergault. Instead it was the 2005 Cadenieres. I decanted it about an hour as there was a fair amount of bottle sediment. There was also some bottle stink of funk and smoke that needed some air.
The color was a pretty faded dark red, a little clearing to brown at the rim. With air the aromas became really nice, dark wild berry fruit, a little smoke, and some old wine things. The mouth was nice too, plum skin and enough fruit left to say it was more then just old wine. The tannins were nearly gone, but there was still acidity left keeping the mouth fresh. It was perfect with the ribeyes and baked potatoes, the sunset and sitting around a fire. I was glad to have aged this, I think it was perfect last night, maybe too old for Nathan, but really aged into a graceful beauty.
I remember opening another bottle at my birthday party back in 2011, BJ and Mdm L were there that night IIRC. It was completely closed that evening at age 6, showing mostly structure (lots of acid, the tannins in the 05 were always pretty ripe but still prominent as a backbone). There were lots of other wines to try that night, and I don't remember revisiting this one after the first glass.
Yesterday out here was another in a string of gorgeous sunny days, mid 60s, a light breeze blowing. I had the day off and worked putting in my vegetable garden. My wife called from work and said she was stopping at the butcher on the way home picking up steaks, and asked what about a fire to grill them. We have a small fire pit in our backyard, but didn't use it much last year due to a drought and burn bans. So the first fire of the season, a celebration for us! After getting this started, I went into the cellar looking for something good, maybe a bottle of Syrah, which I love with smoky grilled meat. I saw the neck label that Eric uses on his bottles, the little white leaf on the black capsule and thought I was grabbing an '06 Pergault. Instead it was the 2005 Cadenieres. I decanted it about an hour as there was a fair amount of bottle sediment. There was also some bottle stink of funk and smoke that needed some air.
The color was a pretty faded dark red, a little clearing to brown at the rim. With air the aromas became really nice, dark wild berry fruit, a little smoke, and some old wine things. The mouth was nice too, plum skin and enough fruit left to say it was more then just old wine. The tannins were nearly gone, but there was still acidity left keeping the mouth fresh. It was perfect with the ribeyes and baked potatoes, the sunset and sitting around a fire. I was glad to have aged this, I think it was perfect last night, maybe too old for Nathan, but really aged into a graceful beauty.