WTN: 2005 Chateau Bernadotte (Haut-Medoc)

Quite good, and excellent QPR. Surprisingly more reddish than purple. Tastes and smells like theres almost as much Merlot as Cab in this. Its got some sweet cassis but also a plummy-red kind of fruit that I associated with merlot. Floral and iron-y secondary notes, and a touch of a chestnutty/chocolate thing (again, I picked up lots of Merlot in this). A whiff of vanilla, but the oak is slightly more prominent on the palate where it comes across as a touch of caramel- not obtrusive, though. Very tannic, and tended to shut down in the glass after a few minutes. Enjoyable enough now, but this deserves 5 years to really show its fruit. My guess is that the Cab will become more prominent as it ages. $22.

but this deserves 5 years to really show its fruit.

Thank goodness you didn't veer off into "strut it's stuff", my personal least-favorite wine note cliche.

Thanks for the note, I agree this wine is a good qpr. At the $20 range, I should put some away. Here is my note from last summer:


2005 Château Bernadotte
8/18/2008: Tight acidic sharp tannins. High broad acid. Fruit is dark and lively. Licorice, tar, earth. Bursting on the tongue with a fairly long dark bitter finish. Needs a lot of time. A lively energetic wine that should be very nice when it matures.
B (B+?)


I drank my sole bottle of 2000 in November and I enjoyed it a lot and wished I had bought more.