Clos des Lambrays, Domaine des Lambrays 2005

A much more deeply pitched nose of dark berry fruit, spice, earth, a hint of animale and an overlay of obvious minerality complements perfectly the rich, full and sweet broad-scaled yet elegant flavors that are solidly structured and firm on the detailed and wonderfully intense finish. This powerful, long and serious vintage of Clos des Lambrays is built for the medium plus term, which is to say out to 20 years of improvement followed by another 20 of plateau.

The colour remains vibrant but has taken on the first stage of evolution. Equally, the bouquet is more accessible than I might have expected. The vintage shows however in the way that the wine tightens up firmly at the back of the palate, but not before the middle has offered a generous rich red fruit. As always, this does not quite have the weight that some might look for, but expresses instead the lighter touch of Thierry Brouin’s hand in the Lambrays tiller. Drinking this alongside food smoothed out the rougher tannins.