2005 Domaine Sylvain Cathiard Vosne-Romanée En Orveaux 1er Cru

The 2005 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru En Orveaux from Sylvain Cathiard is a lavish, dramatically ripe wine that soars from the glass with a decadent bouquet of cherries, blackberry preserve, cassis and dark chocolate, framed by oak vanillin. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, powerful and ample, with a generous core of sweet fruit, fine-grained structuring tannins and sufficient succulent acidity to remain in balance despite its ripeness. Inevitably, this begs the question of to what extent it's a precursor of Cathiard's 2015s: my supposition is the younger vintage will be more precise and controlled at maturity, its oak influence more completely integrated, while retaining the exuberant expression of fruit found in the 2005s. Of course, only time will tell.