The 2005 Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Chateau Beaucastel is considered one of the estate's great structured, age-defying classics, described by Robert Parker as 'probably the most backward and closed Beaucastel made since the 1995.' The estate's 100-hectare biodynamic vineyard, farmed organically since the 1960s and planted to all thirteen permitted varieties, produced in 2005 a wine of exceptional power and tannic architecture that has only gradually conceded its secrets over twenty years.

Wine Spectator ranked this wine eighth in its Top 100 of 2008, awarding 96 points and noting dark fig, currant and blackberry fruit shrouded by layers of tar, hot stone, bittersweet licorice and espresso, with a great tug of iron buried within the finish. The Wine Advocate, in a subsequent re-tasting, awarded 95 points and described a wine reminiscent of the 1995 with tight, structured tannin and notes of blackcurrant, truffle, damp earth and cedar. Decanter awarded 95 points in a further assessment, finding it beautifully perfumed with dried autumn leaves and genuine finesse at twelve years of age.

The 2005 southern Rhone vintage was exceptional: a dry, warm year with very healthy grapes that allowed a late harvest delivering maximum ripeness with full phenolic development. At Beaucastel, where Mouvedre dominates the blend at approximately 30%, the vintage conditions produced a wine of uncharacteristic openness early (all relative to Beaucastel's standards) that has since retreated into a structured, complex maturity. Now at twenty years of age, the wine is entering a genuine peak drinking window.

Drink through 2035. Decant for two to three hours and serve at 17 degrees Celsius. An ideal partner for roast leg of lamb with herbes de Provence, confit duck, game birds or aged Ossau-Iraty.

Deep garnet with mature brick hues. The nose shows dried black cherry, truffle, leather, Provencal herbs, tar, bittersweet licorice and iron, a complex and evolved Beaucastel bouquet. Full-bodied on the palate with ripe, silky tannins, excellent balance and a long, layered finish of great complexity. In a classic phase of mature development.