A beautiful, pure wine that combines freshness and intense richness. It seems to float while still giving a huge mouthful of plums, coffee and sweet, juicy tannins. A straight line of pure flavor all the way to the finish. — Roger Voss

A bottle of the 2005 Clos des Lambrays from a private cellar demonstrated Thierry Brouin's success with the warm conditions. He delivered a wine that shows power and elegance simultaneously, with a well-developed black cherry fruit character, an intriguing yet discreet earthy, savoury note, and a pleasant hint of liquorice spice at the end. The structure is still firm and dense. Although it is drinking well now, it should continue to improve with more time in the cellar.

A red of purity and suppleness. Reveals a dense core of cherry, spice and mineral aromas and flavors allied to a firm structure, while great energy propels this to a long, lingering aftertaste. A combination of power and finesse. Best from 2014 through 2030. 425 cases imported.

The colour remains vibrant but has taken on the first stage of evolution. Equally, the bouquet is more accessible than I might have expected. The vintage shows however in the way that the wine tightens up firmly at the back of the palate, but not before the middle has offered a generous rich red fruit. As always, this does not quite have the weight that some might look for, but expresses instead the lighter touch of Thierry Brouin’s hand in the Lambrays tiller. Drinking this alongside food smoothed out the rougher tannins.

The 2005 Clos des Lambrays is excellent, and will prove to be one of the finest vintages of this wine made since the renaissance truly began here back in 1993. The bouquet on the ’05 is deep and primary and really lovely, as it offers up notes of black cherries, red plums, cocoa, a great base of minerality, espresso, herb tones and a gentle framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused, deep and suavely tannic, with a great core of sappy fruit, strong soil inflection, and great nervosité and grip on the long, tangy finish. This is simply the finest Clos des Lambrays I have tasted since the glory days of the thirties and forties. It should offer excellent value in the context of 2005 grand cru pricing, and is worth a special search.

Served from magnum, the 2005 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru offers up a youthfully reserved bouquet of raspberries, cassis, creamy new oak and espresso roast. On the palate, the wine is beginning to unwind, as it's much less closed than it was when I last tasted it three years ago, displaying good concentration and depth at the core, a fine-grained tannic chassis and a long, generous finish. This ranks as the finest Clos des Lambrays between the 1970s and the 2010, and in a couple more years it will begin to drink in style.

Medium red; the fullest color to this point. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, blueberry, licorice, espresso, wild herbs and underbrush complemented by mocha and meat nuances. Wonderfully broad and rich on entry, then powerful and penetrating in the mid-palate, with its very ripe dark fruit, mocha and espresso flavors accented and enlivened by black pepper, crushed rock and dusty herbs. Not quite opulent or thick but densely packed. Finishes classically dry and youthfully backward, spreading out to saturate the palate with a serious dusting of tannins. This wine's fruit is developing nicely but it would appear to have the backbone for a graceful evolution in bottle. In fact, the wine's tannic structure reminded me a bit of Cabernet. (13.5% alcohol; 3.45 pH; 3.5 g/l acidity) (Drink between 2020-2035) - Stephen Tanzer