There have been some differences over time. The original 05 chocolate paddy was brown brown, with not really any hints of redness, IMO. The early bags also had more distressed looking leather than in 06, both in the wrinkley/pebbly way and in the dye area. Does that make sense? It seems to me that later browns did have varying undertones of red/burgundy. And true, there are leather differences from season to season and within every season. If you like a more distinctive, distressed choc, I'd say 05. For a more uniformly colored, MAYBE stiffer and with more hints of red, later bags.