2005 Chateau La Mondotte Saint Emilion

Bright ruby-red. Extravagantly ripe nose dominated by black raspberry, blackberry, coffee and bitter chocolate. The palate offers a rare combination of freshness, sweetness and power, with an extraordinary solidity and richness to the black raspberry and truffle flavors but also great vinosity. Wonderfully full and concentrated wine with an explosive back half. This offers great early balance but is built for the long haul. I prefer this to the Canon La Gaffeliere today, just as this wine was clearly superior in the heat-wave vintage of 2003. Owner von Neipperg describes the 2005 Mondotte as "the best wine of my life."