Haut Bailly 2005

This shows a great purity of fruit; firm and direct notes of raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries that open to intense notes of fresh flowers. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins. This wine is tight and long -- you know this is good immediately. Pull the cork after 2016.

Tasted at Berry Brother & Rudd's vertical. Like its peers, the 2005 has closed down on the nose and demands rigorous coaxing from the glass. There is a beguiling purity here: raspberry and wild strawberry, touches of fresh apricot and orange blossom but these aromas are all tightly contained. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins and a slight graininess to the texture. Blackberry, graphite and a touch of tobacco that lead to a refined finish this is intense rather than powerful with a long tail of flavour lingering in the mouth. Class...pure class. Drink 2016-2030+ Tasted October 2011.

Haut-Bailly's American proprietor, Robert Wilmers, backed up by the brilliant Veronique Sanders, continues to go from strength to strength. A fabulous example of this estate, the 2005 is an ethereal, delicate, finesse-styled offering with intensity as well as richness. It has all the concentration one could want, but it comes across as gorgeously elegant and sublime because of its combination of delicacy, power, and depth. Beautiful raspberry, black cherry, currant, graphite, and scorched earth notes are subtle, but provocative. In the mouth, there is good acidity, medium body, ripe tannin, and terrific length. This is a beauty of haute couture from Pessac-Leognan. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2035.