My score on the 2005 Château Montrose seems to increase every time I taste it, and this was the finest showing yet. Still youthfully ruby/plum-hued, it has a gorgeously layered nose of darker currants, flowers, new saddle leather, and graphite that's to die for. This carries to a full-bodied Montrose with a dense, concentrated mid-palate, incredibly fine, polished tannins, and a great, great finish. This spicy, complex, nuanced, as well as utterly classic Montrose has another 50-75 years of overall longevity. Count yourself lucky if you have these in the cellar! Drink 2025-2100.

Here we are fully crossing the threshold into younger, more primary aromatics, but they are also well integrated, beautifully softened and gorgeous. This is sappy with a chalky minerality and fully pliable tannins. It's powerful, with a smile-inducing purity of fruit expression and excellent persistency of exotic coffee notes. 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3.5% Cabernet Franc, 0.5% Petit Verdot. (Drink between 2017-2042)

The last year for Montrose under the Charmolüe family, before the Bouygues bought in 2006. Inky plum in colour, moreish from the very first sip. So juicy, such well controlled extraction, balanced but intense and concentrated, with layers of still-vibrant cassis, bilberry, eucalyptus and cocoa bean. You can now clearly see where this is heading, but it will continue to build over the next few years, and then stay on the plateau for decades. Proof that whatever the Bouygues paid for it the following year, they were getting one of the greatest estates in the Médoc. 60% new oak.

The 2005 Montrose continues to show brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with notes of blackcurrant, red fruits, loamy soil, black truffles and cigar ash. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still brooding and tannic, with lively acids and an imposing chassis of structuring—and artery-cleansing—extract. Still an adolescent, it's one of the last unrepentantly old-school vintages of Montrose, and Médoc purists couldn't own enough. While this remains a very youthful wine, it is now apparent that the 2005 will, at maturity, surpass the 1989 and 1990. - WK

This was the last vintage for the Charmolue family - Jean-Bernard Delmas oversaw the elevage of this wine. Deep garnet in color with a touch of brick at the rim, the 2005 Montrose is composed of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. After a little shaking, the nose erupts with a fantastic perfume of blackcurrant pastilles, kirsch, raisin cake, and forest floor, leading to hints of aniseed, cracked black pepper, and unsmoked cigars. The medium-bodied palate has a rock-solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the muscular black fruits, finishing very long and minerally. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

This continues to be very tight yet I loved drinking it the other night at dinner. Loads of spices, berries, meat, cloves and chocolate on the nose. Full body with soft, silky tannins and lots of rich fruit. Still chewy. This is just starting to open up now. Drink or hold.

Powerful, concentrated, deep, long, intense, youthful, and tannic, there is a strong backbone here that will allow this to age gracefully for 2-3 decades with ease. But it is not ready to go at this point. So, either give it 2 hours of air, or wait 5-10 more years.

The Château Montrose 2005 has a quite brilliant bouquet with intense blackberry, cedar and tobacco scents that unfold in compelling fashion – but don’t give too much away. The palate is full-bodied, a Montrose of “architecture” thanks to its vaulted tannin, perfect acidity and immense precision on the long finish. Everything here feel natural and effortless and yet it is clearly a 50+ year old wine. This is a fabulous Montrose, one built like a Bentley.

The 2005 Montrose has a wonderful bouquet that has opened up since I last tasted it just prior to the pandemic. Its gorgeous pure blackberry, boysenberry, menthol and pencil lead bouquet is clearly less rustic than some of its peers. The palate is medium-bodied, quite powerful and intense with a slightly medicinal entry, a minty style (a feature I have not seen with respect to numerous bottles in the past) and ample grip on the finish. It's no shy retiring flower by a long stretch—if you seek a more bombastic Montrose then this is where to come. Tasted at the château. -- Neal Martin

This is still a bit dark and brooding, with a charcoal frame around well-steeped fig and black currant fruit. The long finish lets a deep river of smoldering tobacco and warm stone notes course through. Austere and seemingly taciturn, yet thoroughly beautiful. May not be your style, but this is undeniable.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2022 through 2042. 25,555 cases made. — JM

This is so big it is blinding, a storm of mineral tannin and plum-skin extract. The volume is turned up high, and even as the tannic noise factor begins to diminish with days of air, the wine is still closed tight. The comportment of its power shows this to be a wine from a great terroir; the property, in fact, has some parallels to Latour, with its similarly shaped gravel promontory above the Gironde. Montrose consistently grows one of the staunchest, long-lived wines of the Médoc and though accommodations have been made in recent years to soften it, the tannic index in February 2006 read at 82, a force to reckon with over the decades to come.