2005 Vosne-Romanée, Au Cros-Parantoux, 1er Cru, Domaine Méo-Camuzet, Burgundy

Good full medium ruby. More exotic on the nose than the Brulees, showing an aroma of blackberry liqueur. Large-scaled and fat but youthfully unevolved, with inky depths to its brooding, chocolatey flavour. A wine of compelling richness but not yet showing the personality of the Brulees. Broad, slow-mounting finish reveals surprisingly strong acidity the pH here is a low-for-the-cellar 3.35). This is likely to require at least a decade of bottle ageing.

As with many '05s after bottling, the nose of extract of black pinot and black cherry fruit that is also spicy and elegant has already begun to shut down, and this reserve is particularly apparent in the delicious mineral-suffused flavours that possess superb focus and intense detail on the layered and tautly muscular finish that goes on and on. The transparency here is stunning, as is the sheer length. As I noted in Issue 25, this is absolutely a Cros to find, buy and forget as it will need even more cellar time than I originally suggested. In a word, brilliant.

Drink from 2022 onward