2005 Cahors Prestige

Haut Monplaisir’s 2005 Cahors Prestige is darker and sweeter in fruit than their regular bottling with ester-rich suggestions of black fruit liqueur along with tar, licorice, and overt woodiness. Its tannins are notably refined on the palate and its flavors impressively expansive, but there is a bit of a dry spot in the finish where raw planking shows through the wine’s carpet of black fruits, resin and salt. This certainly has plenty of concentration and structure, but whether it will become more harmonious with a few years in bottle, I won’t venture to predict. Cathy Fournie and oenologist Pascal Verhaeghe (he of the well-known Chateau du Cedre) have once again teamed up for some impressive examples of terrace-grown Malbec. Importer: Vintage 59, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966 9218