The 2005 vintage in Pessac-Léognan
Vintage benchmark: 97/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: Drought without any halt in ripening, together with cool nights, gave a legendary vintage: concentrated, with firm tannins and very long aging potential.
Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.
Tasting
Deep ruby-red colour. Complex, concentrated, smoky bouquet with notes of black fruit, cedar, and tobacco. Very soft on the palate with an abundance of velvety tannins. Outstanding, long aftertaste.
Blend of the 2005 vintage
- 55 % Merlot
- 45 % Cabernet Sauvignon
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2005 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 55 % merlot, 40 % cabernet sauvignon, 5 % cabernet franc — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2005 sheet
- 25 yrsVine age
- 180,000 bottlesProduction
Winemaking
Manual harvest at optimum maturity, transport of grapes in baskets, hand sorting before destemming and Pellenc optical sorting before crushing. The winery is equipped with temperature-controlled stainless steel vats which permit vinification plot by plot: traditional vinification at high temperature (28-32°C) with 3-4 pumping over per day, long maceration (25-30 days). Egg white fining before a light filtration and bottling at the Château.
Ageing
Air-conditioned cellar, traditional racking. Aged 14 to 18 months in 40% new oak barrels.
Food pairings
Braised meat in a sauce, slow-roasted leg of lamb, Bordeaux-style lamprey.
Terroir
Léognan. Deep gravelly and sandy soil overlying a clay substratum.
An offer on Château Larrivet Haut-Brion 2005
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2005
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
This wine’s visuals are grouped in the media library. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 28, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.