Winemaker Notes
Ormes de Pez 2005 has a beautiful deep and dense color, and a nice nose of ripe fruits, very spicy, slightly peppery and with notes of licorice. The mouth has velvety tannins but is very dense. Beautiful licorice final.
Blend: 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Very dense, black, dominated by dark tannins and plum skins, with a mineral edge. The acidity and the ripe fruits are under all this structure, typical of young Saint-Estèphe.
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Vinous
The 2005 Ormes de Pez has a slightly rustic, earthy nose with animal fur scents infusing black fruit—quite charming in a way. The medium-bodied palate offers sappy black fruit laced with liquorice and mint, gentle grip and a touch of spicebox on the slightly dry finish. This is actually better than I expected given that the wines could be "tough" in this era. Perhaps it just needed 20 years? Tasted at Château Lynch Bages.
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James Suckling
The aromas of walnut shell, chocolate and berries are all there. Full body with soft, velvety tannins and a fruity finish. Already ready to drink.
Chateau Ormes de Pez has very homogenous soil (a clay gravel mixture typical of Saint-Estephe) and many of the vines are quite old. The grapes are hand-picked. After selecting the vats and blending, the wine is aged in oak barrels for 15 months in a magnificent cellar overlooking the courtyard.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.