Wow. Solid stuff, a great way to start of the dinner, especially when this was paired with either the roast pork with crackling or the lobster claw in salted egg-yolk. Yellow gold in colour, its nose was very expressive, with lots of honeyed scents, candied ginger, peach, nectarines and yellow plums. Very rich and showy. The rich, almost oily textured palate took on the same theme. Here again, the wine was richly honeyed, with more ginger notes, ripe peach, yellow plums, apricots, some orange peel and a touch of tropical, almost pineapple-gummy flavours. Really nice and exuberant, but kept ever so serious by an undertone of dried earthy mineral and some spice. In spite of its richness though, it always showed a superb sense of balance and great integration so that each pour went down so easily. A little bitter orange peel note at the very finish rounded the wine off nicely with a slight nod to its Alsatian origins. Lovely.

TH snuck a glass in for us from another table - boy, this was very good. Lovely nose was all Leflaive - gunpowder, white fruit, mineral, toast. The palate was pure Puligny though - no one was quite in doubt. Some toasty oak on the attack, but that quickly gave way to red apples, lemons and a long, sitckily persistent finish with earth, mineral and spice notes mingling amidst another hint of toast. This had surprising depth accompanied by absolutely racy 2007 acidity that kept the wine in impeccable balance. Excellent stuff.

Wow, this was really, really good. It was perhaps not showing quite as well as the 2000 we had around the same time last year, but I suspect that this may prove to be the better wine in the long run. Tasted blind, I thought it could be nothing but a top-end Puligny Grand Cru. Nose showed a dose of oak, alongside typical Monty scents of white mushrooms, butter, toasted nuts, vanilla, white chocolate, deep white fruit tones and, with time, honey, honeysuckle and lanolin. Deep and lovely. The palate kicked off with some very Chablis-like saline seashell that made me pause and think of Les Clos for awhile, but it then proceeded to literally coat the mouth with layer after intense layer of white fruit and white meat. It was so rich, so powerful - almost too much I thought! Thankfully, while it showed all the power of a Montrachet, it also possessed the supreme definition of a Chevalier, so that the wine, while not exactly elegant, was focused, balance and nobly structured, with the dense layering of flavours well supported by acidity and dry extract. The long, long finish showed yet more layers of salty peanuts, savoury earth, apricots and white meat that just kept going on and on. I loved the way the wine developed in the glass throughout the night as well, putting on more layers of complexity, yet never once losing its sense of balance and presence even as it warmed up in the glass. Gorgeous. I could not help feeling that the wine was just a little ways of peak-drinking experience however. I would love to try this again in a couple of years' time.

Very interesting wine, and one that gave plenty of pleasure as well. It nosed for all the world like a Burgundy at first, from a rather stemmy year no less, with herbal ginseng and angelica root scents layered over black plums and earth. With time though, it opened up into more typical Cote-Rotie scents of roasted meat and dark fruit. For a moment of time, however, just about everyone in the table guessed it was a Burg. The palate should have told us better. Savoury, with plenty of roast meats, a little rubbery note, some toast and spice on the finish, and dark fruit that was just on the edge of fading into the tertiary territory. In other words, this was quite a typical Cote-Rotie actually. It was perhaps a but straightforward, but still very freshly balanced (especially for a 1989), very harmonious and quite elegant indeed. A pleasure.

This was disappointingly grumpy on the night. It was clearly showing some quality and breed, but seemed uninterested in showing much else. The nose was rather tight and reductive even after an hour or so in the decanter, with milk-powder and rubber-band scents wafting over a bouquet of earth, savoury bacon meat, dark cherries and some flowers, causing them to seem a little distant and less distinct. The palate certainly had some purity in its sappy sour cherries, and a nice dose of NSG's ferrous minerality to go along with a nice savoury tones of dark licorice, plummy fruit and peppery spice on the mid-palate. Unfortunately, the wine seemed to go a bit off in the way the acidity splayed over the finish so that it seemed a little disjointed. An off bottle maybe I would like definitely like to try another bottle, perhaps in another 5 years time I think.

I really enjoyed this. A bit difficult to choose between this and the 1985 on the same flight, which I preferred by just a shade. However, while the 1985 had more life ahead of it, this was drinking at well-near peak. Lovely sappy scents on the nose spread from slightly drying cherry notes, to savoury, almost salty earthiness, some iodine and finally, a bit of perfume drifting around. For a wine pushing its 33rd year, it was still remarkably fresh on the palate, with mouthwatering acidity playing a nice foil to lovely cherry flavours and some savoury earth notes, all showing surprisingly good depth and fruit density. I really liked the sense of focus and energy too, as the wine moved into a vibrant finish with lots of fleshy fruit, some orange peel notes and a nice spicy tail. By now, any vestige of Corton structure had mellowed into a lovely, velvety softness. It is difficult to reconcile this with Burghound's notes from 12 year's ago which more or less pronounced it dead- this wine was perfectly resolved, harmonious and very delicious.

Beautiful stuff. Here was another wine that was pronounced dead by Burghound more than a decade ago, but showing wonderful on the night. Beautiful nose here, somewhat more expressive than the 1978 we had alongside I think, this showed perfumed flowery tones, red cherries, earth and savoury meat. Lovely stuff that set the tone for the rest of the wine very well. The palate had lovely depth and a fine, fresh balance that lent a tremendous sense of definition and detailing to its dark cherry, earth and spice flavours. Really nice depth across the mid-palate, a super-refined sense of structure and a wonderfully harmonious feel all combined to make this wine a real treat. Towards the finish, the dark cherry fruit fanned out to show a deliciously sweet sappiness wed to a nice ring of purity. A lovely wine, and one that I felt would still benefit from a few more years in the bottle. While the 1978 was probably drinking at peak, quite a few of us thought this was the more complete wine.

The last of a trio of lovely Cortons. This was apparently not very nice when TH first poured it into the decanter, but there was definitely nothing wrong with it when I had it in my glass an hour and a half later. The perfumed nose showed violets, dark cherries, plums and wood spice. Very Corton, and very inviting. The palate was still super young. Clean, dark fruit tones showed, lovely definition and purity along with plenty of depth and concentration. Yet this was somehow still a little impenetrable, with dark depths yet to be sounded. However, the fruit expression along with the balance, the concentration and some very impressive length on the finish made for a very enjoyable wine. Good stuff - this should be a very solid wine in another 5-7 years' time.

Really good stuff - a good mature Bordeaux, probably at peak, and drinking very nicely indeed. This was showing quite a bit better than the 1982 St Pierre we had alongside I think. The nose here started out a little intimidating, with strong whiffs of funky animale and barnyard scents - stinkums. Thankfully, it opens up into a broad bouquet of spice, tobacco and dark cassis. The barnyardy notes never quite faded away, but they ended up playing a nice counterpoint to the lusher fruit and spice scents rather than dominating the nose. The palate was lovely from the get-go though. Very 1989 indeed, it had rich cassis, lots of spice, a soft plummy background, all showing a glowingly ripe fruit sweetness. The finish was nicely resolved and very mellow, with a nice whiff of tobacco. I thought it just missed a smidgen of acidity that might have kept it livelier, but it was nevertheless a very nice wine - great with lamb.

The second of the two St Juliens. This was very nice, but it must be said that even with the advantages of the 1982 vintage on its side, the 1989 Beychevelle was showing better than this wine. This bottle still had some way to go I think. Nose was really attractive in an almost modern way, with sweet flowery, almost lavender scents sprinkled amongst strikigly ripe cassis notes with a little layer of tobacco at the edges. The palate was more what I would expected from a Bordeaux from its era. Clean, balanced with lovely acid and clear cassis fruit that belied the wine's age. There was some sweetness with depth alongside, but also a nice freshness that kept the wine very lively. Finish was decent with some tobacco and spice notes closing the wine off. Overall, a very nice wine, but not one that got my pulse racing. Still young maybe, but it lacked some of the complexity of the Beychevelle, or indeed of most 1982 classed growths that I have had. This bottle in particular was stored amazingly well, and I suspect that another 5 years would have done it a world of good.

I could not rate this. There was just so much of everything going on that I found the wine almost impossible to assess at the end of a long night of many good wines. Poured from the decanter, the nose was sweet, candied, almost reminiscent of macerated cherries and sugar. It was bordering on sickly sweet to me. The palate was HUGE. Lots of spice, lots of dark chocolate, lots of sweet, sweet cherries and prunes, tons of licorice, some coffee grounds at the finish. I thought the acidity may have been a little lacking, but it was hard to tell under all that fruit . There was obviously lots of substance and a tremendous, tremendous amount of concentration and depth. Yet the wine was so massive, with so much stuffing that there was just a bit too much of everything for me at the moment. Something worth revisiting in 10-15 years' time. If the 1998 that we had alongside is any indication, this could yet make a very nice wine.

A very nice wine. Quite a relief after the OTT 2007 Chaupin. This was expressive in its own right, but was still far more reserved than its younger brother, with a nose showing more classic CdP notes of incense, dark cherries and deep plummy scents. The palate was certainly rich and rather thickly spread across the mouth, but it felt far more balanced and defined than the 2007, with powdery tannins that have softened to velvet caressing deep flavours of dark cherries, plums and some earth. The finish showed a touch of licorice, wood spice and prunes. Not my favourite style of CdP, but this was certainly a good wine.

Too young! Popped and poured, this was good, but nowhere near as impressive as the last bottle of 1996 Unico that I tried. I actually found this very modern on the nose at first approach. Lots of vanilla and mocha scents, sweet cassis and just that hint of Tempranillo smoke. What was clear was that there was lots of depth, but I could not quite place what it was. The palate, showed sweet cassis and dark cherry flavours, some smoldering rubbery inflections, savoury meat and some dried herbs moving into a grippy finish with whiffs of cigarette ash. The fantastic length here really stood out for me. It also is telling that this stood out even after two very sweet and rather heavy bottles of Grenahce. Even then, this wine still clearly displayed the great transperancy and purity on the fruit that only the very best wines have. However, for all those wonderful qualities, I could not help but feel that the rest of the wine was rather buried and inaccessible, so that it was almost straightforward at points. This will take a long, long time to come around yet. I would think 20 years at the very least.

Interesting bottle to end the night off with - I had quite forgotten that I have had another vintage of the same wine. Light green gold colour ruled out a Sauternes, and the nose smelt liked a noble Riesling more than anything else, with lightly honeyed tones of grapefruit, pomelo and gooseberry. The palate clearly was no Riesling though. Sweeter than one would have expected from the nose, it showed more some honey tones, some sweet yellow fruit, dried apricots, peaches and pears pear, and a long finish with a hint of lemongrass and a slightly bittersweet twist of herbs. Not the most complex of interesting of sweet wines, but this was well-made, and nicely balanced, with some rich depth on the fruit wed to good acidity across the palate. A nice way to end the evening.