Still has a decent mousse with fine pinpoint Badoit-like bubbles, even though it would have tasted just fine without them. Sunny yellow color with fruit like a custard cream filling.

Like no other substance I've ever encountered. An intense nose of hickory smoke builds in intensity for hours taking on all manner of savory scents from mushrooms to crumbled bacon bits. It starts out wild, the acidity so searing it seems almost spritzy, then calms down and transmogrifies into pure umami, tasting more like chicken broth than wine.

The most polished, seamlessly composed wine of the night, beautifully proportioned without the slightest blemish. The integration is so complete some criticize it for a lack of complexity, which kind of misses the point. Maybe it only plays one note but it's a haunting one, dramatic and sustained.

Mealy in aroma and the driest of the demi-secs tonight, with a darker fruit profile and wheaty, grainy elements that provide a nice austerity to counter the sweetness. The attack is more of a chord, different elements in unison but each on its own plane.

Huet's Le Mont from before Huet owned it and very different in taste from the Huets in the lineup, drier with a more aged patina and stronger green elements culminating in a fresh herbal finish.

Doesn't actually say moelleux or demi-sec or anything else on the label, just straight-up Le Haut-Lieu, but demi-sec is how it tastes, at least now. The color of this wine alone bespeaks something special -- dark Cherokee-red and Cognac color with a refraction of deep green around the edges that almost seems to cast a radioactive glow. The fruit profile is more red than white, packing in raspberries and cerise that still come across plump and fresh-picked.

Actually drier than the younger demisecs. Deep, dark, and brooding, surely had its better days.

Nice night when the Madeira is one of the youngest wines of the evening but a special experience nonetheless. Strong nuttiness and some dried fruit and coffee grounds in the bouquet, more of a digestif than a wine but flavored less like brandy than whiskey and rye with just enough sweetness or glycerine to reign in the austerity.