Chateau Valandraud 2005

The 2005 Valandraud is off the charts. Easily one of the wines of the vintage, the 2005 Valandraud possesses tremendous richness from start to finish. Moreover, it has aged exquisitely. Inky red fruit, iron, smoke, dried herbs, menthol, licorice and blood orange infuse the 2005 with striking layers of nuance to play off all that unctuous fruit. This full-throttle Saint-Émilion is a prodigious effort from Jean-Luc Thunevin and Murielle Andraud.

Taste: Super-intense Morello cherry fruit with a fantastic richness and black fruit extraction. Real concentration here, with intense earthy minerality too. The fruit is highly focused – like a funnel of very ripe, sweet-edged dark fruit running through the core of the wine, with plenty of savoury grip and an edge of acidity. Very good length, and seems well balanced despite the extraction