Gorgeous limestone typicity, salinity, gentle raspberry and redcurrant, blond tobacco. You see the difference in precision between this vintage and more recent years, but it's hard to complain about the gentle pleasures of autumnal fruits along with orange peel, black truffle, fennel and oyster shell. Tasted twice in the last few months, and again last summer, just a totally gorgeous wine that is blossoming. Savour its brilliance. Harvest September 20 to 28, ph 3.55. 60% new oak. 35hl/hyield.

Just now starting to come out of its shell, the 2005 Château Canon is a blockbuster of a Canon that has so much to love. Ripe blackcurrants, darker cherries, graphite, and scorched earth notes all define the aromatics (it needs air to show at its best), and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness backed by a stacked mid-palate, building, ripe, polished tannins, and incredible length on the finish. It’s clearly in the early stages of its prime drinking window yet is going to evolve gracefully over the coming two decades in cold cellars. It doesn’t have the sheer precision of modern-day Canon releases, but it brings more opulence and oomph. It's a brilliant bottle of wine.

The Château Canon 2005 has a more complex nose than the Clos Fourtet tasted alongside. It is tightly wound at first with black cherries and dried violet petals, terracotta tiles and brown spices. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and very well-judged acidity. This is very harmonious in the mouth, nicely structured with great precision and persistence. There is a sense of reserve here, but it has a compelling complexity that will surely be enhanced with bottle age. It’s wines like these that remind you why this has such as devoted following that includes yours truly among its number.

The 2005 Canon is deep garnet-brick in color. It needs a lot of swirling to uncover notes of stewed black cherries, mulberries, and boysenberry preserves plus wafts of rose oil, cloves, and unsmoked cigars. The medium to full-bodied palate is still very youthful, with a firm backbone of fine-grained tannins and bold freshness framing the muscular fruit, finishing long and mineral-laced. This is nice now with a long decant, or cellar for another 20 years! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Tasted at the Château Canon vertical, the 2005 Canon is evolving into a quite gorgeous Saint Emilion. One can still discern those brown spices infiltrating the ripe red and black fruit. There is fine mineralité here, great focus, perhaps just a hint of dried blood that develops with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe tannin. It is a very complex Saint Emilion with immense purity and style, a wine that you have to keep coming back to in order to understand. It's at that pivotal stage between primary and secondary notes, the red and black fruit being overtaken by cedar, morels and a touch of game. It gently lifts and fans out to a quite captivating finish. Dare I say that the 2005 Canon is the pick of the three over 2009 and 2010? There...I've said it...it is a quite brilliant wine. Tasted October 2015. - Neal Martin

Aromas of fresh cep mushrooms, berries, spices, roses, and sous bois, give way to hints of milk chocolate and vanilla. Full and rich, with beautifully balanced tannins and a long finish. Loads going on in this wine, yet it remains subtle and beautiful. This needs time. Pull the cork after 2015.

(92-94+) While the 2006 Canon is still open and quite easy to project on into its future, the 2005 has gone into hibernation and is not particularly forthcoming at the present time. The bouquet reluctantly yields up scents of black cherries, dark chocolate, tobacco leaf, some gravelly soil tones and a bit of spicy new wood that is buried deep in the other aromatic elements. On the palate the wine is very full-bodied, deep and rock solid at the core, with the vintage’s beautiful taught acidity really sealing up this beauty from the mid-palate back. The finish is long, firmly tannic and superbly well focused, with excellent grip and a palate-staining persistency. Today this wine is hermetically sealed, but it will be superb at its apogee. (Drink between 2025-2075)

Young, fresh, vibrant and developing better than expected, the floral, earth, sweet cherry, licorice, crushed rock and spice characteristics are starting to really shine. Soft, silky, but on the crisp, fresh side, give this another 5 years for further development and softening. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2005+Canon

The 2005 Canon has a powerful, almost "thick" nose of tarry black fruit laced with liquorice and bergamot scents. It lacks a bit of delineation but has plenty of charm. The palate is medium-bodied with dense tannins and layers of liquorice-tinged black fruit, dried blood and ferrous elements. This appears to have gained some muscle, rendering it a "burly" Canon that might benefit from bottle age and/or a long decanting. Tasted at the château. -- Neal Martin

Freshness and richness combine in this wine. There’s a eucalyptus freshness that goes with the intense acidity. But alongside this is the dark, dense blackberry fruit that layers with the hints of wood. Keep this for six years before tasting, and then for many more.

Shows a lightly roasted edge at first, with raspberry and boysenberry confiture notes laced with melted licorice, singed alder and firm graphite details. Reveals a fine chalky hint, but this has more bass than treble overall. Still rather tight.—Non-blind Canon vertical (December 2016). Best from 2020 through 2030. 4,200 cases made. — JM