Château MARTET "Réserve de la Famille" 2005
Wine containing 100% Merlot manually picked on south-west oriented Graves soil.
Malo-lactic fermentation in 100% new barrels.
Smell of prunes and truffles.
In the mouth, balanced, well-structured, full-flavoured. Dominating fruit. Superb creamy richness, roundness and charm are the key words.

> See complete specifications sheet

Since 1998 Martet has been going through such a wine-producing and wine-growing restructuring that its wines no longer correspond to the general quality concepts of the vintages. So, we can assert that the quality has been on the rise since 1998.

Vintage 1998
It is a classic Bordeaux vintage, regular climate, temperate, without hot and cold snaps. It is comparable to 1988, except for the acidity. The outcome is that the wines are very pleasant : fresh, rich with a wonderful tannic fabric, perfectly balanced with an airy touch.

Vintage 1999
These wines are marked by the hot snap of mid-August. Creamy elegant fruit: superb structure slightly marked by nice notes. The tannins are a bit more severe than 1998. It remains an excellent wine.

Vintage 2000
The vintage of the controlled strength. Distinct fruit, texture, lingering flavour, very well-balanced. Leaves a silky touch on the palate.

Vintage 2001
This vintage has bad luck to be overshadowed by 2000 at the time.
2001 is sensual, vivid, has a seldom equalled subtlety and balance.
A real treat.

Vintage 2002
Fruity vintage. Superb creamy richness, one bites into the wine as one would bite into the grape. Intense and silky, lingering flavour. It explodes in the mouth, endowed with a wonderful elegance. Up till then the finest wine ever produced at Martet.

Vintage 2003
Needless to say that 2003 is an exceptional vintage; all of us have experienced it every day.
Martet is situated on a clay-limestone soil that serves as a sponge. These soils have a reserve of freshness that diminished the impact of the heat wave of 2003. This being said, it is difficult to do entirely away with the notion ‘vintage’. Ripe fruit, very close to over-ripe with touches of slightly candied fruits, low acidity and a wonderful sweetness with a distinct freshness owing to pulpy tannins.

Vintage 2004
After 2003, 2004 was in other circumstances an exceptional vintage. Exceptional owing to the opulence. Off-standard quantity. This being said, Martet is a bit an exception to the rule. The vineyard is being restructured, with young vines whose robustness is limited deliberately. This way the quantities produced at Martet in 2004 correspond to the average of the preceding vintages ( apart from the exception 2003 of course ).
This without green pickings, but thanks to very precise pruning.
Martet 2004 is in barrels at this moment, the malo-lactic fermentations are finished. The vegetative cycle of the vine was very long resulting in late harvesting; the outcome is that 2004 appears to be a pulpy vintage, of the rather strong type with superb creamy richness. It will undoubtedly be an exquisite vintage.