The nose is just utterly delicious, smoky and seductive. This is why you don't drink St-Julien in a great vintage too young, it has suddenly started to sing and take on all these aromatics dimensions. It's displaying a floral, violet edge, with truffles and leather. The fruit is still there but it has started to be accompanied by an orchestra of other flavours. This is my favourite wine in the series, hands down. Showing so perfectly today. The tannins are still there but they are melted, and the whole thing has just come together. 60% new oak.
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Château Branaire-Ducru, 14 Dec 2018)
Part of Anson: Tasting Château Branaire-Ducru

Dark red-ruby. Plum, chocolate and some exotic smoky oak on the nose. Lush, smooth and sweet but not at all over the top; offers unusual volume and breadth for Branaire. The exotic aspect carries through on the palate, and yet this wine is holding plenty of material in reserve. Finishes with building tannins and excellent length. Offers superb potential for aging.

(66% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot and 4% petit verdot; 3.68 pH; 13.3% alcohol): Bright dark ruby-red with a pale rim. Blackcurrant, red cherry, minerals and sweet aromatic spices on the enticing, exotic nose. Then pure, clean and refined in the mouth, showing terrific sweetness to the flavors of blackcurrant, black cherry, mocha and wet stone. This sizable wine offers wonderful poise and precision thanks to vibrant but harmonious acidity. The finish is long and seamless, with a plush, tactile mouthfeel. This is an outstanding Branaire-Ducru and easily one of the best wines ever made at the estate. The grapes were harvested between September 20 and October 10. Ian D'Agata

Floral nuances combined with lots of mulberry, raspberry and sweet blackcurrant fruit are followed by a medium to full-bodied, beautifully pure, textured, complex wine with soft tannin. It should drink well relatively early on (2-3 years) and last 15 or more.

The 2005 Branaire-Ducru is a vintage tasted many times. It unceasingly offers a ripe bouquet in the context of this Saint-Julien with red berry fruit tinged with cedar and sous-bois. More approachable than its peers, it is an expressive 2005. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, well balanced with a stocky, almost burly cedar-infused finish that is less strict than a few years ago. One of the more approachable 2005 Saint-Juliens, nevertheless I remain convinced that it should plateau for many years. Tasted from a bottle from my private cellar.