WTN: Raphet Bourgogne Rouge 2005

Raphet Bourgogne Rouge 2005

This is one of the wines that my wife bought me for our 25th wedding anniversary. I requested a case of Bone Jolly, which she gave me, and any interesting wines that she could find which were available for $25, or less. I made the latter request because I get much more pleasure out of good, inexpensive wines than I do out of blockbuster high-end wines.

With the aid of a local wine shop owner she did in-depth reasearch and came up with some very interesting value wines. The 2005 Raphet Bourgogne won effusive praise from Allen Meadows for its "Exuberant notes of raspberry and earth..." among other things. At $13.99 she couldn't pass it up.

We opened the wine last night only to find that it did not resemble the wine Allen Meadows tasted in the slightest. No real nose at all, even after warming in the glass for about 30 minutes, and the taste was of pure cherry Sweet-Tart with no hint of any underlying complexity. After an hour in the decanter there was no perceptable change.

Since we had to leave we decided to re-bottle and re-cork the wine and give it another try this evening. My guess is at this point it has gone by the boards. It was definitely worth a shot for the price, though.

We opened the wine last night only to find that it did not resemble the wine Allen Meadows tasted in the slightest. No real nose at all, even after warming in the glass for about 30 minutes, and the taste was of pure cherry Sweet-Tart with no hint of any underlying complexity. After an hour in the decanter there was no perceptable change.

Since we had to leave we decided to re-bottle and re-cork the wine and give it another try this evening. My guess is at this point it has gone by the boards. It was definitely worth a shot for the price, though.

Or it could just be shut down. Some people report good experiences with 2005s but for the most part they should be hard and unyielding, even with a puny 1 hour in the decanter (which doesn't even begin to approach the amount of air I would imagine necessary for coaxing something - if anything - out).

I'm no expert, but just because it's a Bourgogne doesn't mean that it necessarily drinks young. So if you have a case of this I would wait a few years before trying another and in 5-10 you may have a lovely wine on your hands. It was certainly a promising vintage for those with enough patience.

You maybe correct, Rahsaan. I'm going to see what the open bottle does tonight. If it shows any hint of opening up I might go ahead and buy a couple more bottles to see how they com around over the next several years.

I have had a few of Raphet's classed growth Burgs and they were excellent. However, I never consumed one that was less than 12 years of age.

You maybe correct, Rahsaan. I'm going to see what the open bottle does tonight. If it shows any hint of opening up I might go ahead and buy a couple more bottles to see how they com around over the next several years.

FWIW, I don't find the showing of a red Burgundy 24 hours after opening to be indicative of anything. But YMMV.