Wine tasting. Popped and poured from magnum. Floral start with really impressive spice aromas, but short on fruit aromas. Red cherry and strawberry flavors, but somewhat lean and short, still showing really good spice, then good acidity on finish. Perhaps just entering its peak drinking window.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured. Black fruit on nose with dense, meaty spice. Plum and blackberry flavors with lots of spice coming through on long, dense, powerful finish.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured. Lean red fruit aromas with good Asian spice. Similar palate shows fairly lean and austere red fruit. Long finish really highlights good spice. This wine needs more time.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured. Red and black cherry on nose with great fresh herbs and licorice aromas. Fruit was a bit less accessible than another bottle from a few months ago, but with more air this opened up better. Great acidity, silky tannins. Long finish with great textures.

Wine tasting. Somehow this got opened and placed next to four bottles of great 2001 Grand Cru Burgundy, so this was a bit out-of-place in the lineup. Ripe black and red cherry to start, delicate spice emerging on finish. Very lush but with good balance already today. Well done.

Wine tasting. Lush spice and fruit on nose, slightly dominated by new oak aromas. Good flavors of apple and pear with good minerality on palate. New oak is still a bit aggressive on palate, but for most people that just makes the spice component even better.

Wine tasting. Ripe stone fruit aromas to start with floral background. Flavors are slightly less ripe, showing moderate apple and pear flavors, with moderate intensity and finish. Probably best now.

Tasted double blind. Moderately pale color. Aromas of well reduced mushrooms, tobacco and cedar. Earthy flavors with some nutty elements. Moderate length and power. Tough for me to identify as Rioja, only as a well made wine intended to age gracefully. Although I have almost no experience with old Heredia.

Wine tasting. Aromas dominated by black pepper with some plum, black cherry and cherry cola. Same dense black fruit on palate with black pepper and licorice, but lots of heat and a sense of over-concentration on finish. Not your traditionally styled wine.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured. Incredibly floral to start with some background truffle aromas and forest floor. Very earthy, mushroomy flavors along with hints of remaining red fruit. Great balance and overall elegance. I don't have prior experience with this wine this old, but bottle says "Tete de Cuvee" on label (see photo I uploaded), something you don't see much any more.

Popped and poured, which certainly didn't given this Corton nearly the air it needed. Tight red fruit aromas were not particularly giving. Same red cherry flavors were well hidden behind lots of acid and tannins. Tough to say where the fruit will emerge when the structure softens, if I were an optimist then I'd give this plenty more time in the cellar.

Wine tasting. This didn't show any of the lush ripeness of a 1985, rather still dominated by tannins and acidity. Opened and decanted for a couple of hours, this kept changing but never really came out of its shell.

Wine tasted, double blind. Good red fruit and earthy aromas, even if slightly past its peak. Similar flavors on palate, slightly lean and harsh, but better than I would ever have expected given the vintage.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured from magnum. All red fruit on nose with hints of spice. Less interesting on the palate, which was still all red fruit, but lean and slightly bitter on the finish. Not much energy or density.

Wine tasting. Popped and poured. Tasted twice, 30-40 minutes apart. Lush red fruit on nose with plenty of new oak spice along with classic baking spice aroma. Same powerful red fruit on palate, very easy to enjoy today but with the density and structure to hold as well. Much like when I tasted this wine at the Domaine in late 2010, this is a really sensational villages level wine.

Wine tasting. I'm not sure how long this was open before I tasted it, but it came across as very tight, lean and inaccessible. Aromas have modest red fruit and spice with a noticeable new oak character. I haven't had that many 2008s already shut down, but this certainly seemed shut but also somewhat old-fashioned, more like old regime Lamarche wines. Curious wine. For its level and vineyard expectation, this was probably my least favorite of the 5 or 6 Lamarche 2008s I've tasted since release in the US, but Malconsorts isn't a wine for the impatient.

Wine tasting. Excellent perfumed aromas to start. Ripe red and black cherry aromas and flavors with moderate spice and fair degree of earthy flavor support. Fruit is clearly starting to fade and show some flabbiness, so I'd suggest it's time to drink these over the next few years.