ON THE NOSE:
Beautiful blueberry aroma with lots of graphite and other mineral notes, dusty rocks, caramel, ginger, and obvious cedar tones. A wonderfully aromatic nose, somewhat perfumed but with enough fruit and minerals to make it all work. The perfume, in fact, really brings me back to another time and place, but for the life of me I cannot grasp the memory, it’s just out of reach. The one thing that comes to mind is Sunday, so perhaps it is close to some scent one of my parents wore to church. Also, Darcey says there is a hair product in here too, i.e. hairspray.
ON THE PALATE:
Clean and elegant, somewhat making up in crispness what it lacks in tannin, and a bit warm at first. A very dry sensation on the mid-palate with much of the mineral essence that was on the nose, only a hint of tobacco, and, believe it or not, old English woolen trousers slipping down the sides of the tongue. It also tastes like I am eating a flower, but I know not which type.
This wine has a medium-bodied mouthfeel with some chalkiness that may satisfy medium-dry fans. Ultimately, however, the acidity is far too out of balance with the astringency as to make the entire affair not a winner, and not recommended. The nose is wonderful, but even that fades as the wine opens up. For the life of me I cannot see why Robert Parker rated this wine a 90. Additionally, the esteemed Gary Vaynerchuk reviewed this wine for an entire early episode on Winelibrary TV (see that episode here), yet it was the 2004 Can Blau Montsant; the 2004 could be appreciatively different than the 2005. On that episode he does say that the finish is bitter, and maybe we are not describing this wine correctly when we note that it is too acidic, I don't know? Gary does say it is a young wine, so perhaps it simply needs more time. On his episode he recommended leaving it open overnight and returning to it the next day, which he does, and he says the wine is "completely different," so ... what can we say? Maybe we should simply have done that, but we didn't, and the more I think about it I want to say "HEY, when I open a bottle of wine I want to drink it that day, not the next damned day!" I would know now, of course, to do that!
We want to be generous with this wine because it “seems” quality, but the bitterness is too overpowering; still, there are indeed some nice things happening, and it never seemed like we were drinking red swill, so we will have to rate this one 87, and that high because the nose is indeed nice. Don’t get us wrong, this is not a BAD wine, just out-of-balance, and at $13 there are far too many superior wines to enjoy.
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 87
Would we drink it again? 
No, not this one. It wasn't all that enjoyable, ultimately, with the high acidity. We would, however, like to try Gary's idea of leaving it open for 24 hours.
Would we buy it again?
Nope. No matter what Parker says on this one, we feel it is not a good value. Again, however, as noted above, if we did have another bottle of this we would certainly give it a chance by leaving it open for 24 hours or more. Yet that isn't something we can really do when we want to enjoy a wine THAT VERY NIGHT, is it?
