2005 Ch. Monbousquet (St. Emilion) – I’ve had a half case of this sitting quietly in the cellar while I drank much older wines (I haven’t started on any of the Bordeaux from this millennium except for a couple of petit chateaux). I thought it might be time to take a look.
The wine is still very dark in colour, with a penetrating nose of dark fruit and herbs and some ripe cassis, very enticing. On palate it has a thick mouth feel, and still exhibits considerable softening tannin and acidity which together make it seem to ‘lean out’ in the finish, but I think that is misleading as the wine has great stuffing and should be an excellent long term prospect – I will probably wait another 5 years or so to try another bottle and expect that it may have snapped into focus by then. I look forward to that with anticipation.