Chateau Brown 2005: Lovely nose, although a lot of toasty oak. Great fruit, deep, complex, slightly smoky, very stylish. On the palate it is quite sweet, attractive and structured, with lovely ripe tannins at it score, quite grainy in character. Great acidity. Quite soft in composition but very complete. Moderate texture, nicely balanced. Very good indeed. 17/20

Chateau Carbonnieux 2005: Lovely and very typical, unforced Graves fruit on the nose, red berries with gravel and tobacco, and there is a little edge of sweetness to it that tells us the wine still has more development to do I think. The palate is soft, but gently polished, with nice flesh and a very well integrated structure. Through the middle the tannins show a little more, and there is good acidity too. It is a little loosely held together today but there is certainly very good potential here. There is purity to the flesh too, ripe tannins and an elegant style. Very good indeed. 17-17.5+/20

Domaine de Chevalier 2005: A more reserved style, more dusty, but still ripe. Very pure, polished fruit. Elegant, raspberries and other red fruits. Rich though, a touch smoky too. Very full substance on entry, but pure and polished, very linear. Finely rounded and harmonious, with really fine-grained tannins and lovely, intense central fruit. Very complete. Impressive wine. 17.5-18+/20

Chateau de Fieuzal 2005: A very unusual nose here, dominated by cooked fruit. An evolving wine, showing some overt undergrowth, forest floor and tobacco characteristics, but all the time with that sweet-stewed element in the background. Good weight on entry, where there are flavour characteristics similar to those on the nose. A soft and gentle structure, with supple edges to the tannins, although with a firmer characteristic at the core. This isn't showing very well today and may not be typical. 15-16+?/20

Chateau Haut-Bailly 2005: Very dense, dark-fruited, pure and elegant nose. Very aromatic. Pure and polished bramble fruits. A richer style on the palate than some other wines. Very dark in character, slightly sooty tannins, dark in structure and intent. Great purity too though, linear and defined. A massively polished wine, impressive and stylish, but well framed and deliciously appealing. Structured, but balanced. Great, lively, with very fresh fruit. Long too. 18.5+/20

Chateau Haut-Brion 2005: A very fine nose here, pure, bright and well-framed. Dark yet perfumed, with notes of bright balsamic, flower petals, dark herbs. It has purity and elegance on the palate, a twisting presence first of gently defined linear fruit, then a core of creamy, velvety tannins with just a hint of graininess to them. Remarkably structured, firm and somewhat brooding, but with a tangible texture to the fruit within. Quite gentle acidity, but well balanced, with grip and length, this is a prodigious effort that will be just divine with the appropriate period of cellaring. 19.5+/20

Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2005: A wonderful nose here; this has an extra dimension compared to many of its peers. There is perfumed fruit, highly aromatic but still dark and mysterious. Violets and rose petals are blended in with elements of fresh stock, tar and tobacco. How enticing! The palate seems very restrained considering the wine's exuberant character on the nose, showing a much lighter presence of perfume, but more importantly it shows a very elegant composition, a well defined, seamless, polished presence, bright and fresh, vigorous and yet elegant. There is structure here, a core of ripe tannin, bright acids, and this is certainly a banker for the long-haul. A superb wine indeed. 19+/20

Chateau La Tour Haut-Brion 2005: A swan-song for La Tour Haut-Brion - the final vintage. A more masculine nose than La Mission. Darker, deeper, more restrained. Nevertheless this wine also has some of those fine beef stock and tobacco notes, although more hidden than with La Mission. And on the palate too, this is a less generous and less flattering style than La Mission. It is polished and firm, slightly stony in character, without the warm flesh of some other wines. A wave of black pepper at the finish. There are more bones visible here, and correspondingly less flesh. There is certainly an elegance to it though, and it is unquestionably of high quality. 17.5+/20

Chateau Latour-Martillac 2005: A vibrantly perfumed nose here, with a deliciously gamey, meaty quality to it, and a very direct and linear style of dark fruits. With elements of gravel and tobacco, this is certainly showing some good Graves characteristics. Slightly plump and polished style here, full of fruit and overall attractive. Good substance, with a polished marble mouthfeel although with a little more generosity than that suggests, and certainly a very good composition. Impressive wine. 17.5+/20

Chateau La Louvière 2005: Rather dark on the nose, slightly brooding, not open and expressive like some of the other wines. But there is a very good feel to it, a restrained character, dense and dark berry fruit, with nuances of perfumed aromatics around the edges. The more time I give it the better it seems. The palate has a creamy start, and then some structure comes in to underpin it in the midpalate. Like a number of other wines it isn't completely together at the moment, and so it is perhaps lacking a little harmony today, but all the desired components are here. We have rather polished, shiny fruit, decent grip especially towards the finish and nice acids. Appealing wine and good value perhaps? 17+/20

Chateau Malartic-Lagravière 2005: Autumn leaves and tobacco, fresh red fruits, there is a lot of good Pessac-Léognan typicity here. There is a little suggestion of density to it though, with slightly darker fruits in the background, and richness alongside the fresh aromatics. A stylish wine on the palate, fresh and very nicely composed, with a great, integrated backbone of tannin and good defining acidity. This is all brought together very well indeed. A lovely effort by the Bonnie family.18+/20

Chateau Pape-Clément 2005: A nose dominated by oak here, fine and well polished, although there is an impressive layer of fruit hiding behind it as well. Aromatic, fresh and rich, with notes of loganberry and dark cherry. A brilliant palate, pure with seamless fruit. There is a huge envelope of oak around it at present but this merely needs time. Very grippy finish, the tannins showing here, but it has balancing fruit for the structure throughout the palate. This will need a long rest in the cellar. Although massive, still very lifted and bright. Wonderful. 18.5+/20

Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2005: Lots of toasty oak on the nose here, over tightly grained fruit. Smoky, charcoaly, wood-derived elements. Supple entry, soft and well composed, perhaps just a little too reticent. Fruit seems rather tightly packed in and is hiding behind a layer of oak that mirrors that found on the nose. Soft, but with a nice harmony that suggests that this wine will come good with time, although it is difficult to pass authoritative judgement today. 17-17.5+?/20