Wine psycho Collin Flatt finds an affordable 2005 Bordeaux. It’s young and tight, just how we like it.

How much difference can a year make? Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2004 was released at a whopping $185. Quite steep for a bottle of vino. Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2005? $680 retail for 750 ml of fermented grape juice. You’ll pay upwards of $2,000 in a restaurant setting for the same bottle. The disparity in pricing from vintage to vintage is based solely on the quality of the fruit in any given year. The recently released 2005 happened to be a banner year in Bordeaux (and generally all of France) and has been mentioned alongside other legendary vintages 1961, 1982, and 2000.

For those of us who can’t shell out a mortgage payment for some wine, stellar vintage’s mean something else: We can’t go wrong with a bottle of 2005 Bordeaux at any price. Buy cheap, go long. I found a very nice bottle of Chateau Beaumont in the PLCB for the staggering price of $16. This is THE steal of the month, an absurdly wonderful value, and a great example of the 2005 fruit. Sadly, there’s not a lot of it around, but I have seen it in the Columbus Circle and Franklin Mills stores, sprinkled throughout the city, and in the ‘burbs.

Chateau Beaumont is in the Haut Medoc, a left-bank wine all the way. ‘Left Bank’ refers to which side of the river the winery is located on in Bordeaux. Left Bank wine is more Cabernet based, Right Bank is more heavily influenced by Merlot. 2005 is a baby at this point, and needs a lot of decanting to get anything out of it. If you don’t have a decanter, fill one pitcher with the entire bottle of wine. Pour the contents of that pitcher into an empty pitcher and repeat a few times. The act of decanting is to let the wine aerate, and this speeds up the process so you can drink it a little sooner. After the White Trash Decant, I suggest you let the bottle open for 4 or 5 hours. She should be ready to go after that. She likes a nap before foreplay.

A classic expression of Bordeaux fruit, there’s a lot of blackberry and mint on the nose, framed with a touch of blood. The wash is bigger dark fruits, and a little mint and eucalyptus. The mouthfeel is very velvet-like and smooth, but the back end has ripping tannins that will integrate well in a few years. The bigger-than-normal-fruit up front helps balance the backside of the wine very well, though. It hugs your tonuge like a glove made of blackberries. Really pretty body on this lass. Still too young to successfully pair with food, really give the bottle a lot of time to open up and let the elements work together, connecting the dots. A brilliant effort for such a value-priced wine.

She’s not very accessible to non-wine drinkers, so don’t go dropping this on people gathering for good ol’ drunkenness. Spend time with her by your lonesome or with a friend looking to experiment. She’ll pay you back with complexity, tightness, and a vision into the future of a wine that isn’t really drinkable until 2012 or later. This little lady has enormous potential for the future, but there’s nothing wrong with being the first to get to her. Be gentle, she’ll remember.

The state store has this in limited supply and the price is $15.99. The PLCB Code is 19408.

– Collin Flatt

Collin Flatt is a former Beer Pong champ turned oenophile. Collin Flatt spends his tax refunds on wine. Collin Flatt has his Bachelor’s Degree in drinking and is getting his Master’s Degree in winemaking. Collin Flatt is working on an Arctic Splash Cuvee. Collin Flatt writes about wine for Phoodie.info.

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