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Wine Description
The Story
Château Trotte Vieille is a 1er (Premier) Grand Cru Classé Saint-Emilion and Borie-Manoux highest classified and most prestigious Château. Trottevieille is a very old estate. A pergament from the year 1453, kept at the Chateau today, shows that the funny name of Trottevieille had already been used for this estate in the 15th century. In the 14/15th century there apparently lived an elderly lady at the estate. The people from the village of Saint-Emilion called her „the old trott“ most probably due to her funny way of walking down the hill to Saint-Emilion. For this reason, in honour oft he namegivng lady, the second wine of Trottevieille is called „Dame de Trotte Vieille“.
Some of the Cabernet Franc vines here date back to the time before Phylloxera. They are thus the original French Cabernet Franc grape plants and have an age of around 150 years. The roots of these vines have made their way down into the limestone rock, sometimes deeper than 20 metres. Cabernet France often makes the majority of the blend of Trottevielle, making it one of the longest living wines.
Vintage 2005
Bordeaux Vintage Report 2005 is a truly fantastic vintage with great quality across the board on both the Left and Right Banks.
The 2005 vintage became the most expected since 2000. The en primeur market was heated, and prices skyrocketed. The cold winter delayed the bud break before the hot ans dunny spring broke up. Even vegetative growth and flowering gave a perfect start to the vintage. The summer turned out to be one of the driest ever which was avoiding disaster since the weather remained reasonably warm not excessively hot as in 2003. The soil is again becoming a decisive quality factor. Gravelly areas, such as Graves, were worst affected once more. In other words, top wines are to be expected.
For short term perspective, in the next couple of years, an excellent amount of mature red Bordeaux wines will be available in the market. The vintages 2004, 2002, 1999, 1994, 1992 and 1988 offer a wide selection of enjoyable wines to be consumed immediately or at most to be stored for a short period.
As investments, the best vintages from the past 35 years are 2003, 1996, 1989, 1986 and 1982. The most certain long-term investments are Latour, La Mission Haut-Brion, Haut-Brion, Le Pin and Pétrus.
In the last 35 years, Bordeaux has undergone a substantial change in winemaking. Modern equipment and developing know-how have guaranteed more even quality. It seems that the next challenge will be handling the extreme climates including slowly global warming, which has already given hints of its effects also in Bordeaux. It is impossible to say how the Bordeaux wines will change in the next 35 years. We can only hope that their most characteristic feature, elegant aristocratic nature highlighted by unique terroir, will never fade away.
