96 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

A meaty and decadent Lynch with very ripe currant aromas on the nose. Full body, velvety-textured tannins and a powerful finish. It shows so much structure and fruit yet remains polished and focused. Lovely now to drink but better in 2017.

96 Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast

Textbook, with mouthfilling and slightly gutsy black currant, fig and blackberry fruit flavors bound together by singed cedar, iron and tobacco notes. Features a tug of loam followed by a second wave of fruit through the finish. This is just starting to stretch out.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 35,000 cases made.

96 James Molesworth - Wine Spectator

Textbook, with mouthfilling and slightly gutsy black currant, fig and blackberry fruit flavors bound together by singed cedar, iron and tobacco notes. Features a tug of loam followed by a second wave of fruit through the finish. This is just starting to stretch out.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 35,000 cases made.

96 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Dark rich ruby, smoked campfire and grilled cedar aromatics, a brilliant Pauillac that is still full of tannic archicture and frame. I had this out of half bottle last year and it was tasting more approachable than this, no doubt because the bottle size helped things to evolve. One of the few where I would suggest not drinking this yet, even the fruit feels muscular right now, and it needs another few years to translate this hidden power into the seductive, rip-roaring wine that is so clearly in there. 80% new oak, Daniel LLose winemaker. This was the last year that Jean-Michel Cazes was in charge before handing over to his son Jean-Charles.

95+ Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2005 Lynch-Bages is a surprising wine. Whereas so many 2005s have begun to enter their first plateau of early maturity, the 2005 comes across as still young and in need of further cellaring! The purity of the fruit is striking. Readers who want to get the full Lynch-Bages experience will have to wait at least a few more years. The 2005 is a wine of substance and depth, with all of the raciness that is typical of this wine. It is one of the dark horses of the vintage, and still has room to go. Impressive.

94 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2005 Lynch-Bages is composed of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-brick in color, it strides out of the glass with classic notes of warm cassis, baked black plums, and cedar chest, leading to suggestions of tapenade, dried Provence herbs, smoked meats, and the faintest waft of cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is youthful and taut, with a solid backbone of grainy tannins and lively line preserving the fruit beautifully, delivering a wine of great purity. The finish is long and fruity. Delicious now in this youthful flush, it has the backbone to cellar a further 20 years+.

94 Neal Martin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Tasted single blind at Farr’s 2005 dinner in Hong Kong. The Lynch Bages 2005 is crisp and full of guile on the nose, aloof at first, but then opening up like a old friend who suddenly realizes who you are. Blackberry, cedar and here, just a suggestion of Hoi Sin sauce. The palate is full-bodied and very well structured with firm backbone. Like previous bottles, it is sulky at first but it soon open up and the tannins are more resolved towards the finish that is sweet and seductive. Excellent. Tasted November 2011.

93 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

An elegant, medium-bodied, yet still classic Lynch-Bages, the 2005 offers up a nicely complex bouquet of darker currant and blackberry fruits as well as spicy wood, graphite, minerals, smoked tobacco, and minty herbs. Still dark, inward, and holding things relatively close to its vest, it has ripe, chalky tannins, solid mid-palate depth and balance, and outstanding length. Opening up nicely with time in the glass, it's unquestionably in its prime drinking window yet has another two decades of overall longevity ahead of it.