Really sleek and focused, with a large core of plum and linzer torte fruit in reserve for now, while hints of mesquite, spice cake, black licorice and graphite flicker through on the finish. Dense and reserved, so cellar for maximum effect. Best from 2010 through 2025. 94 points, The Wine Spectator, April 30, 2008
An impressive effort for Bravay is his 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape, a wine of great intensity with classic Provencal garrigue notes interwoven with ground pepper, incense, seaweed, licorice, and oodles of black cherry and smoky blackberry fruit. Impressively full-bodied, structured and dense, this wine needs 2-3 years of bottle age, and should keep for two decades.
Charles Bravay continues to turn out brilliant Chateauneuf du Papes, eschewing the current fashion of making old vine or single-vineyard cuvees. 93 points, Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate #173 (OCT 2007)
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