Terrific champagne with laser like focus and precision, vibrant crispy apple flavours dominate the palate. I think it could open up a lot more given time, but as is the case for many other 1996 champagnes, this process isn't going to happen overnight is it! TH, who brought this to dinner, has a case so looks like we"ll have to stay friends as I'm looking forward to trying a bottle in 2020

Surprisingly good for 2000, still an element of freshness, though it has the distinct mellowed, creamy floral character that is marks many a mature chardonnay of burgundian persuasion. I don't drink many white burgs (or whites of any sort for that matter) but this was very enjoyable. Mrs L, previously a whites-only drinker until we met, thought it was delicious

Opened and poured side by side with the 99 DRC Richebourg, this wine certainly didn't sit around lazily stretching its limbs like the former did. In fact, it was "get up and go" from first pour, with a beautiful perfume of red berries, spice, spring flowers and forest floor bursting in the glass. (In fact, when the DRC eventually woke up a few minutes later, both would share a distinctly similar bouquet with the Anne Gros coming across as the more delicate and feminine of the two, but both leaving no doubt they were cut from the same cloth.) On the palate, intense flavours of red fruit and cherries were almost dancing off the medium bodied, silk-and-satin layers of fabulous chewy juice. Very, very good indeed

Dark and dense when poured, this was clearly not going to be your garden variety pinot. Tight and closed at first, it began to open up after 15 mins of aeration, throwing off incense-like seams of camphor, soy, dried herbs, wet soil/forest floor. Very big for a pinot, it almost had the body and texture of a bordeaux (as Mrs L kindly put it), packed with a mind-boggling multi-dimentional array of cherry and berry flavours, all overlaid with that sweet camphor incense in the background. The finish lingered for at least a minute. So this is what you get for parting company with that thick wad of precious wine dollars -- a brush with the subliminal glory of the pinot noir grape in the able hands of DRC.

Vibrant, bright ruby colour. Poured in the company of two Richebourgs of similar age, this Pommard made a very different statement! Fruit-forward and explosive with rich, plump juicy notes of raspberry and ripe red cherries, I was quite surprised at how young it tasted. I'm a big fan of Volnay, but this was my first Pommard -- very nice indeed