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The opaque ruby/purple 2005 Clinet offers incredibly fragrant aromatics, an opaque ruby/purple color, and a wonderfully sweet nose of flowers, blackberries, licorice, truffle and caramel. Full-bodied, powerful and rich, it is not as nuanced or complex as the top four or five Pomerols, but close. This is a broad, meaty, masculine, super-rich and concentrated wine, with lavish plum, blackcurrants and blackberries. Drink it five years from now, and over the following 30 or more years.Robert Parker | 96 RPExhibits subtle, complex aromas of black olive, mushroom and crushed berry. Full-bodied, with a velvety tannin structure and a decadent, ripe fruit aftertaste. Slightly earthy, but with loads of delicious fruit. Best after 2013. 2,915 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSGood full ruby. Sexy aromas of black raspberry liqueur, violet, chocolate, mocha and smoky oak. Dense, fat and large-scaled, with a layered texture and compelling sweetness of dark berry fruit. Very smooth if currently a bit youthfully monolithic. Finishes with substantial mouthcoating tannins that arrive late, allowing the chewy chocolate and mocha flavors to expand and linger. This will age on its alcohol and tannins, not its rather low acidity. Elevage should bring greater detail.Vinous Media | 89-92 VMA ripe, rich, soft wine, oozing black jelly fruits and layered acidity. Almost ready to drink, it is a mouthful of delicious, dense fruits. This is a classic wine from Clinet, a property that always produces an opulent style of wine. Wine Enthusiast | 90 WE

A fabulous GPL. Perhaps better than the legendary 1982? It shows laser-guide precision on the palate with aromas of currants, cedar, mint, flowers and chocolate. Full-bodied and extremely finely textured on the palate, lasting for minutes. A joy to drink now. Get some.James Suckling | 97 JSMedium red. Very ripe aromas of plum and musky brown spices; redder in character and less precise than the 2006. Then big, sweet and plump on the palate, with full, mellow flavors of red berries, tobacco and mocha, plus a light smoked meat note. Finishes with sweet tannins and lingering, fully ripe fruit. This is showing its lush side today and is hiding its underlying structure.Vinous Media | 93 VMHas subtle blackberry, licorice and currant on the nose, with hints of mint. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a very pretty texture. Caresses everything. Refined and balanced. A beautiful wine that’s hard to keep your hands off now. Best after 2012. 14,165 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSPure crème de cassis, licorice and spice are all present in this wine from Xavier Borie. Medium to full-bodied and ripe, with sweet tannin and a nicely textured mouthfeel, this is a beauty that should continue to drink well for another 15 or so years.Robert Parker | 92 RPNo written review provided. | 90 W&S

This is monumental. Just a baby with a fresh and intense mouthfeel and density. Full-bodied, velvety and layered. Decadent and rich. A folly of a wine. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 100 JSEven more flamboyant and sexy than the 2000, the 2005 Pavie has everything you could ever want from a wine. Deep, inky purple-colored, an awesome perfume of cassis, blackberries, toasty oak, graphite, and incredible minerality, full body, sweet tannin, and a blockbuster finish all make for an extraordinary Saint-Emilion. It’s still a baby but offers incredible pleasure today. It’s going to last for another 3-4 decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDGérard Perse believes this is the greatest Pavie he’s made to date, although certainly I would argue that list includes the 2000, as well as the 2009 and 2010, among his superstars. This wine, which I had both in the 2005 horizontal report in the Wine Advocate, and at a mini-vertical with Perse at the restaurant Maison Boulud in Montreal, looks to be a 75- to 100-year wine. Dense, opaque purple to the rim, with a gorgeously promising nose of blackberries, cassis, graphite and cedar wood just beginning to emerge, it tastes more like a three-year-old than wine that is already a decade old. This beauty is intense and full-bodied, with magnificent concentration, a majestic mouthfeel and a total seamless integration of tannin, wood, alcohol, etc. Beautifully rich, full and multidimensional, this is a tour de force in winemaking and certainly one of the top dozen or so 2005 Bordeaux...Robert Parker | 100 RPExplosive and sumptuous in the glass, the 2005 Pavie captivates all the senses with its extraordinary beauty. The flavors are deep, racy and boldly sketched throughout. Tobacco, roasted coffee beans, smoke, black cherries and plums are some of the notes that are pushed forward in this seductive, flamboyant wine. Immensely powerful and gratifying, the 2005 has it all. This is an especially youthful bottle of the 2005, a wine that will drink well for decades. There is an immediacy to Pavie that makes it pretty much impossible to resist today. It is one of the showiest wines of this night.Antonio Galloni | 99 AGShows a frankly roasted edge, with steeped fig and boysenberry fruit inlaid liberally with roasted apple wood and juniper notes. The structure is a touch austere, which leaves it standing a bit apart from the core of fruit. Very weighty in feel, this is layered and dense, but also more on the muscular, extracted side of the ledger. Perhaps this is in a tough phase today. Will certainly hang around for a while, so there’s time to wait it out. But not quite in the class of the ’10 or ’03 for me.--Non-blind Pavie vertical (March 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 7,100 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WS

Displays stunning aromas of crushed blackberry, strawberry and raspberry, with hints of sandalwood. Full-bodied, with focused flavors of fruit, toasty oak, vanilla bean and cedar. Long and caressing, this is a powerful yet balanced red. Best after 2016. 550 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSSomewhat of a paradox to taste, on the palate this wine is close to perfection, but the nose is somewhat reduced, with some fig and prune notes. What doesn’t make sense is that the palate is fresh, full-bodied and super-concentrated, with great blue, red and black fruits, licorice, earth and spice. This is a massive wine, but the nose has me worried.Robert Parker | 95+ RPSaturated, deep ruby-red. Superripe black fruits, licorice, graphite and violet on the nose. Wonderfully sweet and scented on the palate, with terrific aromatic lift to the explosive dark fruit, mineral and floral flavors. The wine’s powerful rocky minerality and high-pitched berry fruit nicely leaven the almost exaggerated ripeness of the vintage, giving this wine terrific freshness and extending its finish. An outstanding combination of sweetness and power. I can see this improving in bottle for 20 years.Vinous Media | 94 VM

A meaty and decadent Lynch with very ripe currant aromas on the nose. Full body, velvety-textured tannins and a powerful finish. It shows so much structure and fruit yet remains polished and focused. Lovely now to drink but better in 2017.James Suckling | 96 JSTextbook, with mouthfilling and slightly gutsy black currant, fig and blackberry fruit flavors bound together by singed cedar, iron and tobacco notes. Features a tug of loam followed by a second wave of fruit through the finish. This is just starting to stretch out.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 35,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 96 WSClassic Lynch-Bages with just a bit of extra power and richness. While the tannins are structured, it is the velvety fruit that rolls around the mouth that is the most dominant character. It is coming together into a wine that will be big and dense, but never over the top.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEThe 2005 Lynch-Bages is a surprising wine. Whereas so many 2005s have begun to enter their first plateau of early maturity, the 2005 comes across as still young and in need of further cellaring! The purity of the fruit is striking. Readers who want to get the full Lynch-Bages experience will have to wait at least a few more years. The 2005 is a wine of substance and depth, with all of the raciness that is typical of this wine. It is one of the dark horses of the vintage, and still has room to go. Impressive.Antonio Galloni | 95+ AGAlmost forward but still young; spicy cassis lifts and lengthens its rich dark berry flavours. One of the best Lynch-Bages ever.Decanter | 94 DECAs for the 2005 Lynch-Bages, it is a sexy, surprisingly soft and accessible style of wine, with a deep ruby/purple color, loads of crème de cassis, cedar wood and forest floor notes, medium to full body, ripe tannin and a long, fleshy finish. Drink it over the next 15+ years.Robert Parker | 92 RP

Its bigger sister, the 2005 Château Palmer (53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot), is one of the great efforts of this superlative vintage. Floral notes mixed with blackberry, cassis, plum, licorice and spring flowers soar from the glass of this dense ruby/purple wine. It is medium to full-bodied, surprisingly opulent (it has a big percentage of Merlot), long, multi-dimensional and textured. This wonderfully pure, stunning wine once again performs as a first-growth. It should drink well for the next 20-25 years.Robert Parker | 98 RPThe 2005 Palmer has been absolutely magical both times I have tasted it recently. Still wonderfully deep to the core, the 2005 is dense, packed to the core and luxuriously opulent. Even with all of that intensity, the 2005 remains vibrant. Lush red/purplish berry fruit, rose petal, lavender and sweet spice build into the towering finish. The 2005 is an epic wine that will have no problem reaching its fiftieth birthday. It is a rich, dramatic Margaux that checks all the boxes, and then some. I rated a second bottle even higher.Antonio Galloni | 98 AGThe 2005 was the first vintage where Thomas Duroux was in charge from beginning to end, having worked alongside his predecessor Bertrand Bouteiller on most of the 2004. Another great vintage in this all-star line-up, and the one that perhaps had the most exuberant sunny expression in the early years, although now at 15 years of age the tertiary aromatics are just starting to arrive, along with hints of earthiness and a savoury cassis fruit character as the Cabernet Sauvignon continues to dominate. There is a gentle truffled edging to the colour also, but the tannic frame is very much in play, and still cradling the fruit. A great wine that walks the tightrope between young and old Palmer, and between the welcome of a generous vintage and the natural elegance of a great Palmer. Harvest September 22 to October 7. Drinking Window 2020 - 2045.Decanter | 97 DECNo written review provided | 96 W&SAromas of black tar, chocolate and berries lead to a wine that is so effortlessly delicious that it’s easy to forget the power the Merlot gives it. The center is round, but dark, filled with sweetness; the outer layers are full of red jelly and toast. There are tannins, but they, too, are sweet.Wine Enthusiast | 96 WEWhat a nose of milk chocolate, with raspberries and hints of plums and flowers. A wonderful nose. Full-bodied, with super velvety tannins and a chocolate, nut, and dark fruit character on the palate. The fine tannins and great balance make you want to drink this, but you should wait and let it all out. Pull the cork in 2016.James Suckling | 94 JSFeatures a bright flash of bay leaf and savory out front, with streak of tobacco and cedar amid the relatively open core of black cherry and black currant fruit. The long finish has a terrific iron note ringing through. Among the more approachable of this group, but no less serious.—Blind ’01/’03/’05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Drink now through 2030. 10,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WS