The Ballroom of Conrad Centennial Singapor26 May 2008, Monday
Finally! The much-anticipated 2005 Bordeaux vintage is here! And what better way to welcome this much-touted legendary vintage than to go for the UGC review tasting of 70 chateaus! Usually Monday blues are to be dreaded but this is one Monday that I had eagerly looked forward to and hope to have more often. So many good wines so little time…we started in the afternoon with the wild rush to taste more than 70 over 2005 bordeaux wines from 2nd Growths to Appellation Controlees. Everyone came with a strategy and mine was to limit the afternoon tasting to a max of 30 wines with spitting. As opposed to tasting by order of prestige / price of the chateau, I had chosen to go with tasting by regional appellation. Therefore, allowing for a clearer perspective of the quality of the various communes.
After a quick hour of rest, we were back in the ballroom for the UGC Wine Review Dinner with an extensive list of back vintages in addition to the remaining unfinished 05s from the afternoon. My original plan was to pick at least a sample for every vintage from 1985 to 2003….BUT! ….who would have thought that the wild rush in the afternoon is a mere shade of the mad rush at night….Imagine this…The constant stampede of unruly yet refined wine-crazy gentlemen quenching their thirst like runners at a marathon from one of the three wine buffet tables spread across the three corners of the ballroom. By the time we managed to make our way to any of the tables, the stash of wines had dwindled with a significant number of the most sought after wines of the night nowhere to be found It was only at the end of the event upon scouring around like Indy Jones looking for the holy grail that I finally found the 95 Pape Clement, 01 Pontet Canet, 98 Canon La Gaffeliere emptied and hidden in the ice buckets of the tables closer to the wine buffet tables. Still missing were the Leoville Poyferre 98 and Leoville Barton 99! What inconsiderate suit-clad infidels!
In general, the quality of the 2005 vintage is undisputedly good to great (as echoed by many wine critics – both European and American palates). As can be seen from WADA scores below, this is a fact that cannot be denied. The whole group of us that attended – including myself & DBF, Paul & his fiancee, Uncle L and small L, the bourgogne maestro- William and Gao, all did not find a single wine that was appalling (or at least none were bad enough to warrant any loud cries of agony). In the 3 hours of tasting, the common thread of discussion centred mostly on which wine was better or needed some time to display its greatness. Surprisingly, I found the tannins of more than half of the 2005 wines tasted to be very agreeable now and a majority having no problem displaying purity and intensity of fruits. I personally preferred Margaux and St Julien for their brighter and denser fruits to complement the thick powerful tannins of the vintage. Actually, the right banks (Pomerol and St-Emillion) presented extremely good drinking now…which lessens my intrigue to prefer them. As for the night’s wines… although we couldn’t do the planned tasting sequence…I think it still went pretty well with some surprisingly good wines from lesser-known chateaus.
Us nervously before the start of the tasting. 
Wine chat with Danny Lee (with tie) of Romanee's Kitchen
Mr Gao taking time off to pose with small Lawrence.
So here are some of the scores and tasting notes (as much as I can remember) from the fabulous day of tasting. Pl take note that given the unquestionable pedigree of wines tasted, any seemingly negative comments are made in reference to the overflowing goodness expected from this tasting. Pl also note that scores are given in ranges to take into account the palate overkill…so…don’t trust my scores…its your palate that counts most.
UGC 2005 Vintage Review
Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP92, WS97)
WADA rated 86+ to 91pts
Honey oats…some nuttiness. Tropicana palate with lemons dominating
Pape Clement Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP95, WS95)
WADA rated 84 to 89pts
Floral with wet stones…elegant.
Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP93, WS96)
WADA rated 87 to 92pts
Butter and nutty…reminiscent of butterscotch.
Larrivet Haut-Brion Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP89-91, WS88)
WADA rated 83 to 89+pts
Captivating nose.
Canon-La-Gaffeliere, St Emilion GCC (RP94, JR17.5, WS95)
WADA rated 84 to 90+pts
Sweet cherries, blackberries and chocolate. Questionable finish…undecided. Some bitterness with low intensity finish. Really captured my attention at the start till mid but sort of confused me nearing the finish… maybe time will tell.
La-Gaffeliere, St Emilion 1er GCC B (RP96, JR15, WS92-94)
WADA rated 81 to 86pts
Violets, sweet dark fruits and some chinese herbs …powdery tannins with a bone dry finish. The nose was good but the palate didn’t quite match up.
Angelus, St Emilion 1er GCC A (RP98, JR15, WS96, GV99+)
WADA rated 88 to 93+pts
Sweet cherries, mushrooms and coffee cinammon…nutmegs too…cocoa beans on the finish…v elegant…extremely drinkable now. Some worries were voiced over the acidity…but to me…this is just great drinking now! I love it. So so so elegant and pure.
Smith Haut Lafittte, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP95, JR17.5, WS93)
WADA rated 83+ to 87+pts
Stink bomb…roasted coffeee with bitter mocha ..a bit raw and meaty.
Pape Clement, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP98, JR17, WS96)
WADA rated 84 to 90pts
Another stink bomb with dirty leather and coffee oak…bitter tannins on the finish.
Haut-Bailly, Pessac-Leognan, Graves GCC (RP95, JR17.25, WS95)
WADA rated 82+ to 86+pts
Raspberry with underlying fart. Nice ripe cherries on the palate. Friendly and very gay wine.
Gazin, Pomerol (RP94, JR17, WS94)
WADA rated 84 to 88pts
Brambles, dark fruits…WOW!!! Very layered…lots of spices..Powdery tannins and a lil dangerous on the alcohol.
Clinet, Pomerol (RP92, JR17.5, WS93)
WADA rated 88 to 94pts
Lightly perfumed with violets, coffee and blackberries. Very balanced…very light and gentle…like the bridegroom carrying the bride over the threshold…it brings you gently from start to finish…of some Chinese herb bitterness dashed with fruits. I am feeling it. Can’t believe its so ready to drink now.
Leoville-Poyferre, St Julien, 2nd Growth, (RP93, JR16, WS92)
WADA rated 82 to 87pts
Oaky and greenish with some dark blueberries. Alcohol showing.
Leoville-Barton, St Julien, 2nd Growth, (RP94?, JR17.25, WS96) WADA rated 85+ to 91+pts
V interesting intensely sharp nose with good freshness. This is for keepers.
Branaire-Ducru, St Julien, 4th Growth, (RP95, JR17.5, WS92)
WADA rated 86 to 91+pts
Dense violet nose…Full bodied with some chin chow action…dark blackberries.
Pontet – Canet, Pauillac, 5th Growth, (RP96, JR15.5, WS96)
WADA rated 85+ to 90+pts
Raspberry, some oak…sweet raspberry and strawberries on the palate. Beautiful length and energy.
Lynch Bages, Pauillac, 5th Growth (RP91, JR17, WS93)
WADA rated 81+ to 86+pts
Stinky rotten vegetables with good fruits. A little bitter lemon seeds on the finish.
Clerc Milon, Pauillac, 5th Growth (RP92, JR17.5, WS95)
WADA rated 80+ to 86pts
Bitter tannins reminiscent of fruit seeds.
Lascombes, Margaux, 2nd Growth (RP95, JR15, WS93)
WADA rated 87 to 92pts
Deep dark brooding fruits. More berries than cherries. Definitely a parker wine but on reflection, this did stand out.
Giscours, Margaux, 3rd Growth ( RP91, JR17, WS93)
WADA rated 87 to 92+pts
Very surprised by this chateau given that not much attention has been given by the critics…probably because there are too many good 05 wines to compete with. But..I really felt this wine…I could feel the effort of trying to throw a serious challenge to the big boys….Lascombes being one of them. Deep, dark and luscious. I like the intensity of the fruits, acidity and tannins. Some might say its trying to hard.. but I can feel this underdog (well ..it’s a 3rd growth so maybe a Great Dane underdog) in the game of big name chateaus.
Brane-Cantenac, Margaux, 2nd Growth (RP94, JR15.5, WS92)
WADA rated 82+ to 86+pts
Malescot-Saint-Exupery, Margaux, 3rd Growth (RP97, JR16.5, WS97)
WADA rated ???
Had just a sip of this because they were out of it…but from what little I had…I didn’t feel the 97pts given by both WS and RP. Maybe I should re-taste to give it a fairer chance. However, a few frens that had tasted this.. didn’t feel it too.
Siran, Margaux, Cru Bourgeois Exceptional (RP88-90, JR15, WS91)
WADA rated 82 to 85pts
Brambly with violets. Good fruits.
Latour Carnet, Haut-Medoc, 4th Growth (RP91, JR15.5, WS90)
WADA rated 80 to 85pts
Decent with good fruit, acid and tannins….just not great.
La Lagune, Haut-Medoc, 3rd Growth (RP95, JR16.5, WS91)
WADA rated 80 to 85pts
2005 Sauternes
Given such a wonderful vintage, its no wonder that the sauternes are rich, bold and full-bodied sweet dessert wines. Yummilicious but hard to judge now as all of them are so rich! Too cloying and sweet to tell how each will develop. Will definitely be buying a few keepers to taste in anohter 10 years at least.
UGC Wine Review Dinner
What a treat...after a day of tasting the fantastic 2005 vintage ...we had a pretty sumptuous dinner with more wines! Personally, I felt the dinner menu was more blanc than rouge...abalone..chicken..curried prawns...Hmmmm...i wish I had some viognier or alsace rieslings. Here is the dinner menu:
The lamb wasn't cooked well enough and had lingering afterflavours of muskiness. The prawn, siew mai and abalone were just normal. What I do remember fondly is the crispy egg noodle which I felt was the tastiest with good fragrant aromas.
Too many wines, too little time..
a pity we hadn't been as Kiasu enough as a Singaporean..we had missed out on tasting some of the wines that I had shortlisted to try for the night. They were very ungraciously taken away from the wine buffet table onto individual tables. But still...there were many other marvellous old vintages that we managed to taste and here are the scores and whatever tasting notes that I could remember. 
2001 Siran, Margaux, Cru Bourgeois Exceptional (RP86, WS87)WADA rated 86pts
Some green stemy action in this. Suprisingly pleasant drinking with good fruit acid and tannins...much better than their 2005.
2001 La Gaffeliere, St Emilion, 1er GCC A (WS88)
WADA rated 75+pts
Rather disappointing effort.
2001 Pontet Canet, Pauillac, 5th Growth (WS90)
WADA rated 78pts
1996 Brane Cantenac, Margaux. 2nd Growth (RP86, WS90) WADA rated 87 to 89pts
1998 Gruaud Larose, St Julien, 2nd Growth (WS89)
WADA rated 88 to 90pts
WADA rated 86 to 88pts
1995 Langoa Baron, St Julien, 3rd Growth (RP86, WS92) WADA rated 84 to 86pts Stemy green action.
2000 Malescot St Exupery, Margaux, 3rd Growth (RP92, WS93) WADA rated 83-85pts Stinky with some indian spices.
2002 Carbonnieux Blanc, Pessac Leognan, GCC WADA rated 83pts Sweet toffee, dates on the nose but suprisingly lemony sourish palate. A contradictory effort.
1999 Armailhac, Pauillac, 5th Growth (RP89, WS90) WADA rated 83 to 85pts
1997 Climens, Sauternes, 1er Cru (WS94) WADA rated 88pts Sweet canned lychee cocktail.
1996 Coutet, Sauternes, 1er Cru (RP88, WS91) WADA rated 89pts A flower garden in bloom.
1998 Guiraud, Sauternes, 1er Cru (WS89) WADA rated 87+pts
1989 Bastor-Lamontagne , Sauternes (RP85, WS88) WADA rated 92pts
Liked this the best. Maybe its the great vintage it had come from or the slight advantage in bottle age, this is the most quaffable of the lot with gentle sweetness and complexity from both floral and sweetened fruits.
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