Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2005s nine years on

This article with its 61 tasting notes owes its existence to you, dear readers – or at least to those who were kind enough to respond immediately to my question on the forum sent straight from the tasting room in Châteauneuf-du-Pape last October when I was faced with the choice of tasting either this retrospective of 2005s or the tiny crop of 2013 Cuvées Spéciales. It was a wonderful illustration to me of the miracle of immediacy that is possible thanks to JancisRobinson.com.

These nine-year-old wines (I tasted them on 30 October 2014), all tasted blind within the two groups of...