2005 Lascombes, Margaux

A joyous Lascombes, this is the first vintage to hit stride since the US investment firm Colony Capital took over in 2001. It's a meaty wine draped in fragrant tannin, built for long aging. It's also an exuberant wine, in both the bright, red currant-scented fruit and the bristle of the tannin. A playfully complex flavor lasts for minutes, the wine still youthful and fresh four days after it was opened. Margaux chic.

The nose is dark and spiced, and brimming with black olives, liquorice and star anise aromatics. The palate is no less impressive than this rather confident nose, showing a charming and richly textured presence, underpinned by great energy. It impresses with some divinely toasted dark fruit flavours, nuanced with smoke and cigar box notes of evolution. This is all supported by a frame of tannins which provide a sensitive grip which runs into the finish. This is top quality but it remains youthful even at more than fifteen years of age. I suspect another decade in the cellar would benefit it, although – having tasted much older vintages alongside the 2005 – I have to consider the possibility that it has many decades ahead of it yet.