Tasting the 2005 red wines from the bottle, many of them three or four times, confirmed that this is the greatest vintage produced during my 30-year career. Some of my earlier reservations concerning the tannin levels in the northern Médocs were completely resolved by the tastings I conducted between March 22 and April 1, 2008. A great majority of the wines are far superior from bottle than they were from cask, confirming the quality of this remarkable vintage.

As most consumers are already aware, prices are at record levels for such young wines, but the real values are not found in the first-growths or many of the classified-growths, rather they are found in the wines I have written about in a separate article called “Bordeaux’s Big Little Wines” (see below, click on the title to see these wines). These are some of the finest wine bargains of the world, and quality for unheralded, less prestigious terroirs continues to merit significant consumer support. At the same time, the top end offerings from the most renowned appellations and terroirs are likely to become primarily museum pieces given their already astonishing price climbs.

Perhaps the most amazing revelation in my tastings was how sweet the tannins have become. Combined with the wines’ concentration levels, remarkable precision as well as freshness, it augers well for wines that will last for an incredibly long time. Yet I believe many wines will be drinkable earlier than my barrel tastings suggested.

Believe it or not, most of the ratings that follow are on the conservative side, and I look forward to revisiting many of these 2005s in 5-10 years. I would not be surprised if they are even better then than the following laudatory comments suggest.

About Prices

Now that the 2005s are in bottle, prices will continue to rise, as hard as that may be to believe given present day values. I suspect the prices quoted in this report, which were arrived at by averaging prices from six major retailers, will look low as the world continues to clamor for what is left of the 2005 inventory. For the American market, the prices are especially exacerbated by the weak dollar and our sub-prime crisis. Nothing short of a worldwide economic collapse will bring prices for the 2005s down.