90/100
Summer drought and early September rains took their toll on the number of lots that could be selected by Hecht and Bannier for their 2005 Minervois, and hence the volume of finished wine, but the results are unusually fine-grained and brightly black-fruited for this vintage (so many whose wines are reduced, tough-textured, or generally in a funk today). Bitter-sweet cassis, juniper, dark chocolate, lavender, and smoked meat are recurrent themes; with distilled fruit overtones and stony, iodine-like, and savory, saline underlying mineral and carnal suggestions adding considerably to this densely-packed wine’s complexity and allure. This has greatly improved since I reviewed it in issue 178; what’s more, I now realize that it is more likely than not to remain fresh in the bottle for at least the next several years. US$19
