Chateau Caronne Ste Gemme 2005 3L
Its wines like this that really define what an incredible value Bordeaux can be if one is willing to look beyond the big names and the prestige labels. Even by the high 2005 vintage standards, this will be one of the top cru bourgeois wines.
This is a 3L bottle.
***Available on pre-order. Please contact us for details.***
The vintage
Winery
Chateau Caronne Ste GemmeAppellation & Region
Haut-Medoc, BordeauxBlend
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit VerdotAverage age of vines
30 yearsVineyards & Vinification
The vintage
| Blend | 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot |
| Alcohol | ? |
| Harvest | 20th of September |
| Production | ? btls |
| Yield | 46 Hl per hectare |
| Average age of vines | 30 Years |
Harvesting is 50% manual and 50% machine
Press Release
THE TIMES
June 2010. Jane McQuitty.” STAR BUY” …this overdelivers on every front. I adore dits classy, full, fat, gamey, cedary blackcurrant fruit.
Newsweek April 7, 2008 : Bargain Bordeaux –uncorked 2005
91 – This bottling, based on Cabernet Sauvignon, is pumped up with raisin and dried-fruit flavors
THE WINE SPECTATOR 2008
2005 : The savvy shopper : 91/100 Points
flamboyant, full bodied red Bx with ripe fruit, coffee and oak undertones and velvety tannins. Pumped up.
2005 : Smart buy : 91/100points
Offers raisin and dried fruit, with very ripe fruit aromas and coffee and oak undertones. Full bodied, with velvety tannins and a long finish. This is pumped up, but I like the flamboyant character. Best after 2011. 20000 cases made.
ROBERT PARKER – THE WINE ADVOCATE 2006 88/90
Sleeper of the vintage »
The Wall Street Journal 11/1/2008.
Looking for value in a prized vintage. A drinkable fruit bowl of blueberries & blackberries, with a great deal of life and terrific acidity to make it lift and make it great with food.”
THE WINE ENTHUSIAST
Considerable depth of flavor here, with complex ripe tannins, topping the dense black fruits. There’s spice from the wood, some stalky tannins from the fruit, and an edge of youth that will need 3-4 years to show its potential. R.V. 6.1.08
THE WINE SPECTATOR 2006 | 89-91
Lots of berry and chocolate character with hints of vanilla. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and silky tannins. Impressive. Almost hard to believe, it’s so good. Almost 92-94. —J.S.
Ben Giliberti 2007
“All I can say is “wow.”
This is a terrific bottle of Haut Medoc Bordeaux quite apart from price, and it’s just astonishing for under $20. It’s got gorgeous, black-purple cassis and berry fruit, a really pretty nose of violets and vanilla, layered over those abundant but soft 2005 tannins I’ve come to expect now after tasting so many of the classified growths of this vintage. It’s clearly made in the cru classé mode. Its wines like this that really define what an incredible value Bordeaux can be if one is willing to look beyond the big names and the prestige labels. Even by the high 2005 vintage standards, this will be one of the top cru bourgeois wines.
Betanne & Desseauve Best wines of France 2007/08 wine guide
Considerable depth of flavor here, with complex ripe tannins, topping the dense black fruits. There’s spice from the wood, some stalky tannins from the fruit, and an edge of youth that will need 3-4 years to show its potential. R.V. 6.1.08
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Situation : In the St Laurent Médoc area 500 meters south of the saint Julien strip and in the direct neighbourhood of the vineyards of Gruaud Larose, Lagrange, Belgrave, Camensac and Lanessan.
The vineyard, a resurgence of the St Julien occidental mound, forms an island of 38 hectares (94 acres) planted on first class günzian gravel on a base of iron rich sandstone, a little more sandy to the east, a little more clayey to the west.
The wine making The grapes are destalked, then slightly crushed and sent into stainless steel fermentation vats which are thermo-regulated. Fermentation is led at the temperature of 26/28° Celsius with light “over the top” pumping for a soft extraction of the skins. The maceration can last three weeks. The wine ageing of 12 months is made exclusively in French barrels of 225 L., of which 25% are renewed each year. The wine is fined and finally bottled at the vineyard 20 months after the harvest.
History of the vineyard
The vineyard was first reported in 1648 when a local Landlord, Denys de Mullet of La Tour St Lambert rented it to a farmer in exchange of the wines produced. Caronne is derived from “Carona” for a local spring source, and Gemme a corruption of “James”.
In the middle-ages the locality was a parish on the grounds of a subsidiary to the Templar Commanderie at nearby Benon a few kilometres inland. The Parish was abolished during the Revolution and it is about this time that the first records of wine production at Caronne begin to emerge. In 1900 ownership of Caronne passed to Emile and Eugène Borie. The sons of Eugène would later cede their shares to their uncle and purchase Ch. Batailley and later Ducru-Beaucaillou whilst Emile’s descendance would remain sole owner of Caronne until this day. The property is now managed by François, the fourth generation with his brother Georges and his two cousins Michel & Jean François.
