2005 red burgundy (and a bit more)

Last night a friend took me out to dinner at Morton's. We brought along a bottle of 2005 Bouchard Volnay Caillerets Anciennes Cuvee Carnot. I picked it up at Binny's some time ago for about $54, and it now sells for around $90. I was fortunate enough to purchase three cases, so I figured i could risk a potential infanticide and see if 2005 merited all of the hype it has gotten.

All I can say is wow. The wine is currently open, although I suspect that it will shut down in the not too distant future and my planned drinking window begins around 2015. The fruit is magnificent and the wood not evident. This will be a fantastic bottle some day after it gains some complexity over time.

I strongly suggest any pinot noir lover look into the 2005 burgundy vintage. The prices are very high (but when has burgundy ever been cheap) which is partially attributable to the weak dollar and partially attributable to the successful "greedy" pricing structure of the 2005 bordeaux futures campaign. While we are inundated with the vintages of the century, 2005 burgs are worth cellaring.

As always with burgundy, I suggest some serious research before pulling the trigger, as the prices are a bit painful.

And while I am at it, I would also recommend investigating 2006 gruner veltliner at either federspiel or smaragd levels. This under appreciated white varietal is incredibly versatile (and enjoyed the vintage of the century in 2006). The lower level (federspiel) wines of 2006 are similar in quality to many of the smaragds in past years. There are also some terrific values. For an entry level, I'd try to find a bottle of the Domaine Wachau Federspiel Terrassen. I've seen it somewhere locally for around $10 and should give you some idea as to what this varietal is all about. I purchased a lot of 2006 Gruner (as I own too little white wine) and am looking forward to drinking it over the next 10-15 years if i can keep my hands off of it.

agreed. 05' is the best year we're probably going to see for quite a while. And it's not just burgundy, a lot of the european reds, especially the northern Italian reds are showing very nicely right now and will only continue to blow us away as time goes on.