Medium ruby. Black raspberry, minerals, dark chocolate and sexy oak on the nose. Thick and velvety but vinous, thanks to bright acidity and firm underlying minerality. Primary, inky and impressively concentrated for a Cotes de Castillon wine. Finishes with substantial ripe, dusty tannins and very good building length.

Joanin-Bécot is one of the most reliable and consistently excellent wines from the Côtes de Castillon, and all the credit has to go to the inspired work of Juliette Bécot. The gorgeous 2005 is just now coming into its plateau of maturity, where it should easily stay for a decade or more. With super-ripe black cherry, raspberry and blackcurrant fruit interwoven with incense, licorice and a touches of espresso roast and spice, this full-bodied, opulent, lusciously constructed wine is a beauty of purity and symmetry as well as depth and texture. Drink it over the next decade or more. It is a sleeper of the vintage.