St Emilion/Pomerol - 2005

Outstanding fruit and flavour. Contrast in style between châteaux.

The heart of Pomerol is particularly fine, as are the top St Emilion vineyards on the ‘Côtes’ surrounding the town itself which show exceptional finesse.

Flowering started on 23rd May and continued with excellent summer weather conditions. With only 400mm of rain overall, the year was fairly dry. The harvest started about two weeks early this year at places like Pétrus and Trotranoy and the quality is 'impeccable' according to proprietor Christian Moueix. They were the first Right Bank properties to start bringing the grapes in, as Moueix worried that the rain forecast for the harvest weeks would affect the crop.  'I have seen nothing like this in many years,' said Moueix. For his part, Gérard Perse is reported to be very pleased with the quality of the grapes at his St-Emilion properties including Pavie, Pavie-Decesse and Monbousquet. On September 9th and 10th, heavy rain fell, drizzling on 12th September and tapered out. Then the sun shone from 15th to the end of the month. Many producers started picking after the rains and quality is reportedly not as impressive as the Left Bank.