Probably the greatest Pape-Clement ever made, the dense purple-colored 2005 (a blend of 55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon) exhibits sumptuous notes of smoky scorched earth, graphite, melted licorice, and blackberries. Once past the exquisite perfume, the wine reveals full body, extraordinary concentration, plenty of chocolate, smoke, cassis, and blackberry flavors, and that unmistakable volcanic ash-like earthiness that comes from this appellation. The tannins are slightly sweeter than those found in most northern Medocs, but this is still a backward, large-scaled effort that requires 7-8 years of cellaring. It should last for 30-35 years.--Robert Parker
Dark in color, offering wonderful aromas of licorice, berry, fresh tobacco and currant, with Indian spices. Complex and full-bodied, with supersilky tannins that caress every inch of the palate. Long and satisfying. A joy to taste this young wine. --Wine Spectator
Good deep red-ruby. Superripe, expressive nose offers black plum, smoke, spices and leather. Denser, sweeter and fatter than the 2006; even more generous and forward today. But this impressively chewy and rich wine also has a powerful underlying spine and plenty of lurking power. Finishes very ripe and very long, with the tannins buried by smoky, minerally soil tones. --Stephen Tanzer
One of the real stars in 2005, not just of its district, but in all of Bordeaux, Pape-Clement is a downright opulent wine with enormous, optimally ripened, black currant fruit, load of rich oak and a sense of succulence equaled by few. It is already beginning to show real complexity by way of its mildly toasty, tobacco-like accents and its flashes of olives and herbs, and it is firmed by wonderfully refined tannins that promise to hold it in fine stead for decades to come. --Connoisseur's Guide 3 Stars, 96 Points