A gorgeously silky, juicy and balanced glass of wine, this combines elegant richness of sweet cocoa and blackberry, with tons of power and a feeling of holding itself in check. This is signature St Julien, concentrated yet delicate, just an utterly lovely wine that has good acidity, with tannins that have melted into the rest of the structure and fruit that is still absolutely in control, followed by a saline edge to the finish. There's a long road ahead still, but this is a standout Ducru.

The 2005 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is still stunning, with an incredible bouquet of ripe currants, spicy herbs, tobacco, and smoke, with a kiss of savory flowers in the background. Rich, full-bodied, and powerful on the palate, it has nicely integrated tannins, a layered mouthfeel, and awesome length on the finish. It's just now at the early stages of its prime drinking window and has another 30 years or so of prime drinking.

The 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou, 63% Cabernet Sauvignon and 37% Merlot, is deep garnet in color with a touch of brick. It needs a fair bit of shaking before it erupts with the most spectacular perfume of kirsch, warm cassis, rose oil, and licorice, followed by hints of unsmoked cigars, crushed rocks, and fragrant soil. The medium to full-bodied palate has a firm, grainy texture and compelling tension, beautifully framing the red and black fruit layers, and finishing with a firework display of floral and mineral notes. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Fully ripe red cherry, cassis and blackberry fruits. with exotic turmeric and clove spice notes. Plenty of supple texture through the palate, with softened tannins and St Julien balance. Higher Merlot content than you would find in the wine today, this is a 2005 with hints of tertiary truffles, saffran and oyster shell, finessed and welcoming. Harvest September 21 to October 6. 100% new oak. Eric and Jacques Boissenot consultants.

Deep garnet colored, the 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou needs a little coaxing before slipping sensuously out of the glass with the most alluring perfume of red roses, kirsch, star anise, cardamom and fragrant earth over a core of blackcurrant pastilles, blackberry preserves and warm plums plus a touch of tobacco. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a wonderfully taut, tightly knit frame of fine-grained tannins and bold freshness supporting the densely packed fruit, finishing long and perfumed. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Dense, dark, deep, intense, long, and full-bodied, the wine is continuing to develop, flesh out, soften, and add complexities. Now, you find earthy, forest floor, tobacco leaf, cedar, lead pencil currants, and truffle. The wine finishes with a big blast of spicy, sweet, fleshy black currants. Give it only another year or three, and it should really start to deliver the goods. The wine blends 67% Cabernet Sauvignon with 33% Merlot. Drink from 2025-2060.

A grand wine, it has great ripeness and richness, majestic in its structure and upright character. It is concentrated, perfumed and opulent. The style of Ducru Beaucaillou is both generous and powerful, and obviously ageworthy. — R.V.

This offers dreamy aromas of singed mesquite and warm fruitcake that meld into a lush swath of mulled currant, fig and boysenberry fruit flavors. Black tea and incense notes skitter throughout, with a mouthwatering iron edge buried deeply.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 10,000 cases made. — JM

A nice, complex wine with notes of flowers, berries and leather in the nose. Full-bodied, with pure fruit that turns from light raspberry to cherry jam. This is balanced and silky, a beautiful harmony. Give this some time if you can.

Tasted at Farr’s Ducru-Beaucaillou dinner at the Ledbury. Consistent notes: this is a fantastic Saint Julien that is built for the long haul. The bouquet is tightly coiled with ebullient dark fruits, sandalwood, macerated black cherries and a hint of vanilla emanating from the unresolved new oak. The palate is full-bodied with sinewy tannins, wonderful harmony with the same ethereal sense of symmetry as the 2000. The finish is still tannic and almost “brutish”; so do not think about opening this wine before 2020.

The 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou, tasted a dozen times since en primeur, was picked 21 September to 6 October, matured in 90% new oak for 18 months. It delivers a wall of black fruit on the nose that gradually opens up with aeration, touches of incense and wild mint, cedar coming through with time. But these aromatics remain very backward. The palate is medium-bodied with firm grippy tannins, fine acidity, solid and focused. Tremendously and uncompromisingly backward, this is a seriously fine Ducru-Beaucaillou that is just not yet ready, so go back to the cellar and leave it there for another five years. Tasted at the Ducru Beaucaillou vertical at the château. -- Neal Martin

Ducru delivers absolute deliciousness in 2005, a refined and elegant pleasure that just feels right in the end. It could be that after all the sleek, floral beauty, the polished chocolate-truffle tannin, there's a formidable grip that tightens around the finish. Suddenly it feels as hard as iron. If the aromatic beauty of the fruit can survive while the tannin matures, this could well be a wine to covet in 20 years.

93+ The 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou, which was also raised in one hundred percent new wood, will have no difficulty carrying its new oak to the finish line and is a superb young vintage of this fabled estate. The nose is deep, pure and shows off a lovely tang to its aromatic mélange of black cherries, cassis, a touch of blood orange, tobacco leaf, soil and cedar. On the palate the wine is fullish, deep and rock solid at the core, with a nice girdle of tangy acidity, excellent focus and grip and a very long, ripely tannic finish. Today there is just a touch of oak spice that sticks out on the backend, but this should be absorbed with no difficulty over the next couple of years and the 2005 Ducru-Beaucaillou should prove to be one of the reference point vintages for this property. (Drink between 2020-2070)