Wine Spectator 100 pts

This is breathtaking. Black in color, with incredible aromas of crushed blackberry, mineral, licorice and lead pencil. Full-bodied, with a mind-blowing texture of seamless tannins that coat every millimeter of the palate. Goes on and on, with licorice, currant and flowers. Time will tell if it's better than the 2000.

James Suckling 99 pts

A stunningly complex and complete nose of flowers, dark fruits, and minerals. Very perfumed and subtle at the same time. The palate is full, yet tight and powerful with perfect tannins and a long, long finish. The quality of the tannins is phenomenal, please leave this alone for ten years.

Wine Advocate 98 pts

The 2005 Léoville Las Cases is a classic that numbers among the wines of the vintage in the Médoc. Wafting from the glass with notes of dark berries, cassis, incense, burning embers, sweet soil tones, dark chocolate and cigar wrapper, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a vibrant core of fruit, lively acids and sweet, powdery tannins. More elegant and refined than the hulking, uncompromising 2006, the 2005 is nevertheless a powerful, tightly wound wine that will reward further bottle age, even if it's actually quite expressive today.

Wine & Spirits 98 pts

Here is one more vintage to prove Las Cases deserves to be elevated to first growth. The Delon family has tended this great terroir as if they were already there. And the wine has the assured stance, the persistence of flavor that lasts long enough to become a memory, an imprint on whatever synaptic connection may store and recall the greatest pleasures of taste. The energy in the wine is remarkable: beautiful, lithe juice that carries a flavor close to tiny currants and black cherries, but a flavor all its own. The deep stones of Le Clos and the roses with their view of the Gironde seem to be there in the wine as well. Harmonious and jazzed. Perhaps this is the vintage.

Vinous 97+ pts

The 2005 Leoville Las Cases is one of the most brooding, potent wines of the year. lf opened now, the 2005 needs a good 12 hours in the decanter to start performing well Over time, the2005 shows it is just at the very beginning of a first plateau of maturity, with lovely aromatic complexity, layers ofradiant fruit and tremendous structure to back it all up. The high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (88%)foreshadows the style that has now become the norm. Time in the glass brings out the red/purplish fruit nicely. Still, lwould prefer to give the 2005 a few more years in bottle.

Decanter 97 pts

The colour here is rich ecclesiastical purple, and the fruit still tight and brooding, although it starts to soften up with a good carafing even now. It's the texture of Léoville Las Cases that often hits you, and the confidence of a wine that knows it has years ahead of it. Dark fruits, bitter chocolate, black truffles, all perfectly in place. One to savour.

Wine Enthusiast 95-97 pts

A big wine with dense tannins, but so elegant. Dark, intense, with layers of acidity underneath that only show through at the end. Unusually, Cabernet Sauvignon dominates this wine, a sign of the ripeness of the Cabernet fruit.

Jancis Robinson 18+/20 pts

Mid to deep crimson. A stony, mineral undertow on the nose but with lovely lift and haunting scents too. Firm with a very ripe spread of flavours that almost distract from the weight of fine tannins underneath. Unlike some wines, this wears its tannic charge effortlessly. Racy and lifted. A very successful Las Cases.