Chateau Kirwan 2005
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Product Details
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Somm Note
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Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Aromas of cedar, spice box, incense, burning embers, black currants, and new wood jump from the glass of this full-bodied, structured effort. Behaving more like a Pauillac than a Margaux, it is a long, concentrated, powerful wine meant for long aging. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dense and dark, this is an extracted wine with polished fruit. What stops it going over the edge is the delicious sweet fruits, the dense structure and the elegance that gives it shape and aging potential.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I remember tasting a number of Kirwans from the 19th century that had held up surprisingly well for over 100 years. While the 2005 will probably not last that long, it may be one of the finest wines this estate has made in the last fifty years. This brilliant, full-bodied, powerful, broodingly backward Margaux exhibits a dense purple hue along with notes of charcoal, licorice, blackberries, and graphite. Exceptionally concentrated, possessing high tannin, zesty acidity, and a 45-second finish, it should be purchased only by patient connoisseurs. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2035.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
At this point a wine of somewhat mixed messages, Kirwan is a ripe and fairly outgoing effort that is long on creamy oak and concentrated cassis and blackberry fruit. At the same time, it is limited by its harsh and fairly abrupt tannins, and, while deep enough to offer good aging potential, it clearly requires at least eight to ten years of patience.
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The vines are thinned out in order to encourage maximum concentration and ripeness in the grapes. These are hand-picked and carefully sorted before being crushed. The wine is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats and then aged in oak barrels (35% of which are renewed every year) for 18 months.
Chateau Kirwan takes its name from the Irishman, Mark Kirwan, who owned the estate in the mid 18th century. The Schyler family has owned Kirwan since 1925.