Lots of age apparent. Cedary boquet with slight oxidative notes, US oak sawdust quality and cassis fruit and a touch of mustard. Dry and savory palate with US oak to the fore. Attractive wine, but past its peak.

Rusty colour. Minty top notes. Soft berry fruit bouquet with plenty of eucalypt and lifted coconut aromas. On the palate, this shows dusty tannins from the US oak. This wine is good for the style, but is not aging or transforming particularly well.

Ruby rust colour. Savory, layered and complex nose, but also suggesting a wine in decline. The palate is tart and slightly sour. The acids don't feel integrated. Typical Northern Rhone syrah varietal expression but the acids and sour finish detract from a wine that was superb in its youth, but is now clearly in decline.

Quite a bit of age apparent om the meniscus. Bouquet of blackcurrant liqueur , mint and earth but also suffers from a funky, slightly dirty oak quality. Tannic and slightly drying. The funky oak is off putting. Very stalky and green flavours.

Dense ruby colour. Very ripe nose of dark berries, candy cane spice and chocolate. Somewhat closed, but very ripe. Big and alcoholic on the palate. Fleshy and structured. The wine boasts very harmonious acid and feels mature. There is a slight note of rubber hose on the finish. Good.

Very dense colour. Creamy and cedary American oak. Spicy and mature palate with a soft finish. Tasted blind, this stuck out as classic Penfolds. The acid and rawness of the oak handling stick out on the end of the finish. This is massive, but for my tastes, currently unbalanced. Perhaps in 10 years the oak will marry with the fruit in a subtle manner, but currently, this is not the case. Still, this is impressive for its power of fruit expression, If not its subtlety of harmony.

Mature hue. Easily picked blind as a superb Northern Rhone Syrah, this wine boasts a classic nose of smoke, bacon fat, leather and bright raspberry fruit. Very floral. Like the 1995 tasted the night before, this wine boasts a lovely and silky mature mouth feel. It is currently a point, lean and flinty with superb focus and balance with a finish that is built on the berry fruit. Super wine.

First vintage for 407. Like its big brother, this features a very dense hue. The nose is minty and oaky - although not as raw in oak as the 707 - and lots of cassis notes. The American oak feels less obvious here and the fat structure of the wine is reminiscent of a big year Bordeaux. This is a good wine with plenty of flesh that is just let down by an oaky and slightly rough finish. In a way, this is better balanced and more enjoyable as a drink than the 707 - it certainly is more mature. One excellent taster spoke of this wine suggesting the theorem that "less can be more".

Rich, but mature hue. Ripe blackcurrant, chocolate and cedar on the nose. Lean and tannic in the mouth but has reasonable authority. Great balance but slightly dead in the mouth. Beautiful floral notes, ripe fruit and excellent presence bring this close to outstanding for me.

Dense and mature hue. Nose of lifted berry fruit, candy cane spice and a touch of eucalypt. In the mouth, really tasty and fat, with nice balance. Textbook large scaled Bordeaux with plenty of grip, spine and thick fruit. Broad and structured and still some way away from its full apogee of maturity and resolution. A hint of the savory buttered popcorn note I often sense in great vintages of Petrus. While tonight, this wine was overshadowed by Angelus and Pichon Baron, this has breed and will improve. 94+

Dense and mature hue. Brooding Bordeaux nose - meaty, cedary and still closed. Stunning on the palate! Very tannic and a masterclass of the power, texture and finish great Bordeaux can attain. Incredibly complex, in a modern style, this is great and exotic wine which is still young. Tasted blind, I thought this was the 1990 Petrus, but in fact this was in another league than that fine wine.

Dense and mature hue. Lots of lifted and juicy berry aromas. Beautiful palate that shows gorgeous integration and a surprising degree of subtlety for such a blockbuster Paulliac. Essence of ripe cabernet and Spanish cedar. Not as other-worldly as the preceding Angelus 1990, this is an extraordinary wine by any standard and is a sure bet to improve with further cellaring. Great modern Bordeaux. 96+